It is with great joy and honor to gather as a community in prayer, and to celebrate the hard work and achievements of our grade 8 students – our 2023 Graduates.
It is amazing to see how much growth that has taken place in each and every one of them and I feel extremely privileged to have been a part of such an important milestone in their lives. These past few days I have been spending a great deal of time watching and rewatching their legacy videos. There were a few common themes: lifelong friendships, an appreciation for a challenging education, and the opportunity to become closer to God. Believe it or not, the purpose of the assignment was not to just give one more test to them ….but ultimately to determine if WE, their educators, passed the final STAR test.
I loved how many of them spoke from their heart and shared the important roles that their friends, teachers, and parents had in their lives. For some, MSOS was where they first learned about God and the Catholic faith. It was incredibly heartwarming to hear them reflect on and appreciate how the Catholic faith has positively impacted their lives.
Their legacy videos consistently reflected how important their friends are to them. Despite the fact that they will be moving in many different directions, It has been wonderful to witness the friendships gained at MSOS last a lifetime.
Throughout the years, I have watched them laugh a lot and learn a lot. Tears have been shed, championships have been won, and many of them have grown confident enough to lead and respectfully challenge and request meetings with me to “talk”. Class of 2023, you have survived your music logs and overcame hurdles that seemed impossible to overcome.
Graduates were reminded that challenges accompanied with trust in God, help them become stronger, wiser, and more confident individuals. As Pauline Estern affirms, “To achieve the greatest success, you have to embrace the prospect of failure.”
Finally, graduates were challenged to mark their spot in the next chapter, to think about how they can pay their education forward by sharing their knowledge, gifts, and talents with others, and to embrace the bigger and many more opportunities that high school will provide. But most importantly, they were reminded to remain humble in their words and actions and be sure that their words and actions always reflect gratefulness to their parents and to God.
