Arthur Edgar Briscoe
May 23, 1930
8 O’CLOCK
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Graduating Exercises
Dear Friends, Teachers and Classmates
Our little boat stands tonight at the bending of the stream
and we are pausing awhile to draw in our breath for the work ahead.
The voyage of life is through many
deep and unknown channels, with many windings and turnings that often make it
difficult for us to tell just what we have passed by, and what we are yet to
meet.
It seems a long course to follow as we row through the
waters, and we are often tempted to let our bark (barque) drift whithersoever it
may; but as we rest upon our oars and look back, how a very short distance we
seem to have come, after all, and how close the banks appear to be!
It is pleasant to pause here at the
bending of the stream and consider for a little the pleasant calmness of the
wave ripples through which we have been
so easily rowing; but we cannot linger long for already the noise of life’s
larger waters is calling us, and we know we must row ahead out of the peaceful
shallow current or our young life, where we have been able to drift through so
much of our passage, and pull hard through the deeper channels against the
streams of active life.
Dear parents, guardians and friends,
we cannot pass forever out of this quite channel into the deep waters awaiting
us, without thanking you from the bottom of our hearts for the privilege of
beginning this voyage of life on the breast of so clear and calm a stream.
For these happy years our bark has glided so
smoothly between the banks that we could reach over and gather the lilies
through which we were guided, and were scarcely conscious of our own efforts in
propelling our little craft up the stream.
Our teachers have carefully sheltered us from every
adverse wind of thought, and have warned us with the most zealous pains of the
evil rocks and shoals or tangle of seaweed so sure to be met with in the broader
channels of our onward course.
We realize that had you not made this possible for
us, our start on the voyage of life might have been saddened by many disasters
and retarded by many a barrier that might threaten to wreck our vessel, even at
the very beginning of our voyage, and we want you to know how much we appreciate
your loving thoughtfulness before we, tonight, sail onward, through the deeper
channels to the sea of the larger life awaiting us.
To you, dear teachers, we must also
express our earnest thanks, often and often in the days to come when we are
thrown more and more upon our own guidance intuition, our minds will travel back
to you, and we shall see how many times you have helped to steer our frail bark
around this or that difficulty, till we shall long, I am sure, to return to the
shelter and protection of your piloting.
But you have given us both our chart and compass,
and as our boat glides out of the waters where you have been its guide so long,
and your eyes, as I know they must, follow us on into the deeper channels ahead
may you ever see our dark blue and gold as signals of promise and grateful
resolution from the class that must never be afraid to show its colors, as we
push out to perform our mission in the splendid sea of a bigger opportunity.
And thus, classmates, we linger at the
head of the stream, the end of our course.
We have rowed together through the school-waves
behind us, but each must row forth alone into the deeper channels to come
whatever and into whatever they may lead.
Let us, as the billows of life force us apart keep
our dark blue and gold, with all that they signify to each one of us, ever
flying at the mast head; and so, face the duty of the unknown waters bravely and
boldly, the privilege of honor ever turning the pilot wheel, as we sail to the
success no graduate of the dear school can ever fail to win.
Onward, through deep channels,
May we ever hold
Wearing from our panels
Our dark blue and gold.