‘Make it a good world’ — Scarborough graduates told to redefine ‘amazing’

SCARBOROUGH — The Scarborough High School class of 2012 was only days into its first-grade year on 9/11. It may not be surprising, then, that change has been the one constant in their academic careers, especially in the last four.

"This class has faced unbelievable amounts of change since we came to Scarborough High School," Adam Cohen, the class president, said at Sunday’s graduation. "All in one year we had a new principal, a new athletic director and a new guidance director. The economy was a disaster. Some of our parents lost their jobs. Teachers were being cut. Classes were being cut. Our pep rallies were changed, the add/drop period was taken away and, we were told, we could no longer 'grind' at dances."

That last complaint drew a laugh from the thousands of well-wishers who filled the Cumberland County Civic Center for the ceremony. 

"Parents never quite understand that one," Cohen said, with a shrug.

Still, he went on, the class of 2012 has handled all the change foisted upon them with grace and aplomb.

"People hate change, people don't respond well to change, but the way this class has responded to change has been truly remarkable," said Cohen.

During his class tenure, Cohen said, Scarborough High School has racked up more than 20 state titles, in events both athletic and academic. Not content with fewer offerings, the students founded a number of new extracurricular clubs.

"We got creative, we started our own traditions and somehow found ways to expand learning opportunities despite tough economic times," said Cohen.

“This has been a great group of kids to work with,” said second-year Principal Dean Auriemma, before the ceremony. “Their legacy is going to be the lessons I learned from them, through their participation, their spirit, and their outright leadership, in the classroom, on the athletic field and in the arts.

“I would say the majority of my plans for next year are based on this class,” said Auriemma. “I only wish I had had the chance to start with them as freshmen.”

Someone who did watch that class of 2012 from its inception is 18-year Spanish teacher Erik Zavasnik, who delivered the faculty address with faux trepidation, given that four of the past five commencement speakers from the faculty are no longer on staff.

As a language teacher, Zavasnik pays close attention to words. Lately, he said, he’s noticed the prevalence of the word “amazing” as an all-purpose descriptor. A class, a movie, even a sandwich – everything, he said, is said to be “amazing.”

“Why ‘amazing,’ when what you actually mean is really good?” Zavasnik asked, rhetorically. “I think we can all agree that what actually amazes you in your life should be something bigger and better than the delicious sandwich you just ate.”

Zavasnik suggested that if the students spent their post-secondary careers making a careful examination of what actually is, or is not, amazing, they might ask additional questions, such as: Why am I taking this class? Why am I in this job? Or, why am I still dating “this fool?”

Refusing to settle, constantly questioning – these attitudes, said Zavasnik, would inevitably lead to experiences that truly are amazing, building confidence, and leading to subsequent adventures of an even more amazing nature.

“You can choose the easy path of everyone else, or the path of the quietly unique,” said Zavasnik. “Both paths are open to you and now is the time when you get to make your choice. I hope that all of you will choose the path that allows you to build lives that truly are amazing.

“And by amazing,” said Zavasnik, reaching for the greater superlative, “I mean astonishing.”

In her speech, valedictorian Susan Rundell – nationally recognized in both Academic Decathlon and karate – declined to offer life advice to her peers. Although bound for Yale, Rundell said 99 percent of her classmates had a better vision than she of an ultimate career choice.

“As such, the vast majority here have far more to offer me in terms of wisdom that I could ever hope to offer in return,” said Rundell.

Instead, Rundell joined Cohen in complimenting the 253-member graduating class on its collective sense of unity, even as they were preparing to disband as a unit.

“Tonight, we will cease to be a graduating class, and what a class we’ve been,” she said. “We’ve been a class of collaboration, not competition – a class where the achievement of one really has been the achievement of all.

“The thing that truly sets us apart is our inclusiveness and kindness,” said Rundell. “As one of the shyer, nerdier, weirder people present, you can trust me when I say that anyone who wanted a place here could find one.

“It is with a confidence in our fortitude, reverence toward our responsibilities, and gratitude that the best days of our lives lie ahead of us, that we now move forward,” said Rundell, adding that, for the class of 2012, their days of looking to the future are over.

“Tonight, we become the present,” she said. “No longer are we to be defined by the world we live in; the world we live in will be defined by is. So, let’s make it a good world, better than the world we’ve inherited, and one worthy of the people we’ve become.”

Despite a self-depreciating reference to a lack of charisma, Rundell drew a hearty round of applause for her speech. Still, the loudest cheer of the night, accompanied by a standing ovation, went to a select group of 15 graduates. They were, said Auriemma, who asked them to stand, the members of the class of 2012 who are transitioning directly in to the military.

Despite an evening of transitions, and speeches that revolved on the theme of change, literal and figurative, the moment was, said Auriemma, a reminder of how some things have changed very little in the past 12 years.