Good evening and welcome to parents, special friends, our professional community, and …ALMOST graduates. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Class of 2019 Senior Banquet.

A night this special only happens because of the hard work of so many. Please join me in recognizing Lora Allison, Amanda Wiersma, Cheryl Cragun, Liz Kelly and Jan Connon. We are so grateful as well for our PTF partners – Lisa Payne, Upper School PTF Coordinator and the junior class parents under the leadership of Lynda Collier and Amy Wolcott. Our fabulous juniors, Class of 2020, will be serving tonight along with some of the younger siblings of the Class of 2019. And a special thank you to our amazing maintenance and grounds team for this gorgeous setting.

Seniors, I remember when I met with all of you at Senior Retreat at Camp Stevens back in August. It was my first time speaking to you as the Principal, and you may remember I shared my own high school story. I shared my hopes for you based on my own regrets and what I now understand about human happiness, well-being and a life well lived. I encouraged you to truly engage with your classmates and the adults on campus and prioritize these relationships. I implored you to invest in the people in this incredible community, to let them in and to allow them to see you as you really are. I asked you to have the courage to be vulnerable because it is only when we let down our guard, that we truly allow people to love us – imperfections and all…

Seniors, thank you for hearing me that day. You have done what I asked and more. I have watched you all year and could not be more proud of how you have come together as the incredible Class of 2019. I have watched you win CIF and State Championships and run to hug each other before anyone else. I have watched you suffer defeat and wipe away each other’s tears with humility and compassion. I have seen you working together on projects and helping each other prepare for assessments in our new quiet study space. I have watched you toil until the wee hours as you pull together a theater production, a musical piece or to close down a well-attended dance. I have seen you sharing a laugh, a moment of gratitude and many high-fives with our professional community. I have watched you welcome each other to lunch tables, cheer for each other in Convo or at lunch on the lawn, encourage each other on the ping pong or foosball tables and cry uncontrollably in each other’s arms at the senior countdown. I have watched as your class became one…. and as you fully recognized that these people around you tonight are an integral part of who you have become and what you will remember. You have made a lasting impact on each other and on all of us.

While I know the dinner looks delicious and I promise not to keep you much longer, I couldn’t start this dinner without taking the opportunity to tell you what you mean to me…. You are uniquely special to me and always will be. Of course you are my first graduating class, and for that I will forever be grateful. You have completed this year with such success, humility, kindness and grace and you have made us all so proud. You may not know that many of you were some of the first people I met on this campus when you were just three. As I wiped the tears away from my face after leaving Robbie in his first preschool classroom, I saw some of you in those very small chairs and play areas. I have watched you grow and learn and loved watching new students join the Class of 2019 and make it increasingly more true to what it would become. Each one of you has added immensely to this class and your contributions have been felt throughout this community. You are also the class that awarded me with the greatest honor of my working life when you dedicated the yearbook to me. To know that you see me the way I see you was special beyond words. I was truly overcome. You are a remarkable group of young people and you have impacted me more than you will ever know.

Speaking for the entire professional community, you, the Class of 2019, have made your mark on all of us. While we are your teachers and mentors, you have taught us so very much. We love you and we hope you know that this will forever be your home.

And to all you parents of the Class of 2019, we have been on this journey together and it has been so joyful to share this experience with you. We have taken first day of school photos together, discussed books to be purchased, stood on sidelines, cheered in the PAC, navigated sleepovers, dances and road trips. Shared laughs, moments of pride, and a few tears …. and this is all coming to an end. I can’t thank you enough for being the parents you are, that have nurtured and supported this incredible group of graduates. We all owe you a debt of great gratitude.

 

Good evening. My name is Ryan Westendorf and along with my wife, Kim, I want to congratulate you for graduating from St. Margaret’s. Although we are parents to Joey and Tatum, we are also fellow alumni from the class of 1991 and we want to be the first to welcome you into the Tartan Alumni Association.

It is very surreal to stand up here in front of you as a parent with a child graduating because I have very vivid memories of my own time here at SMES. I started at SMES about a month after it opened in 1979. Where we are sitting now was just dirt and I can remember being able to see all the way across to the Forester Mansion which is right next to the freeway which we all thought was haunted. I attended the first service when the Chapel opened wearing a red sweater that was similar to the one many of you wore in Lower School and little did I know that I would get married in that very same St. Margaret’s chapel to a girl that I would meet here in 4^th grade. My wife, Kim and I graduated together in 1991.

Back then graduation was held in the chapel because there were only 25 of us in our class so we fit fairly comfortably. I remember standing on the steps in front of the alter looking out at the audience when we turned our tassels to signify our graduation. I remember getting choked up in the moment and I saw a couple of my close friends were feeling the same way. But I looked across to Kim to see that she had a huge smile on her face…she was ready to leave.

Whether you’re feeling nostalgic or can’t wait to get out of here, know that you will always be part of the larger St. Margaret’s community. The Class of 2019 is the 34^th graduating class of St. Margaret’s and you are joining a group of over 2,300 alumni that have spread throughout the globe but still hold a place in their hearts for a small school in San Juan Capistrano.

I encourage you to embrace this new membership in the Tartan Alumni Association. As an alum, you’ll get to partake in events all year long and throughout the country that bring Tartans together. The Tartan network is powerful - it helped my daughter Joey get an internship in Washington D.C. for her ISP thanks to a SMES alum and it will assist you however it can. I have also heard that your class will be making a donation to T.A.L.E. – the Tartan Alumni Legacy Endowment and I want to thank you for that. We hope that all of you will continue to support St. Margaret’s in the years to come in whatever way you find appropriate.

Please know how unbelievably proud we are of all of you and your accomplishments. As a parent, I hope that, regardless of where your life takes you, you remember to visit us. But as a fellow Tartan alum, I can say welcome to the club. I can speak from personal experience in telling you that you all are incredibly prepared for college and your lives beyond. I encourage you to enjoy your last week at your soon-to-be alma mater and don’t be afraid to come back – we are thankful that we did. Do take time to look around you and remember this place and the people who make it so special. I still keep in touch with several people that I met here at SMES including a few teachers and who knows, maybe your future spouse is sitting right around you.

We love you all very much. Congratulations!

 

Hi, my name is Robbie Graham, and I’ve been a member of the Class of 2019 since preschool. Before I begin, I would like to give a thank you to St Margaret’s as a home, the community of faculty and staff, and most importantly the Class of 2019. You have all helped each and every one of us grow for a significant amount of time, and that time we’ve all spent together has been extraordinarily special. Each day I will rise holding St Margaret’s, and the community of St Margaret’s, in the deepest part of my heart. The day I learned I had been chosen to speak here was one of my most beloved moments of the year, and I thank you all, truly, for being the people you are. Each and every one of you contributed to the Class of 2019 being whole, unique, loving and compassionate.

Although this was a new experience for me, I started reading a book in my own time over this ISP break. It was recommended by a friend, and the premise of it seemed interesting to me. The book, entitled the Book of Joy, was written about the dialogue between two leaders of our current age, The Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu. Throughout the book, they talk about the keys to happiness, or pure joy as they refer to it. They said there are four pillars of the mind: perspective, humility, humor, and acceptance. There are also four pillars of the heart: forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and finally generosity, that feed into happiness, and ultimately lead to a more joyful life. With perspective and humility, we are able to look at a stressful situation, like a school test, with a greater view, understanding that tests, exams and due dates come and go, and life moves on, and furthermore, understanding that everyone has to deal with the common stressors of school. It’s not just you. With humor, we are able to gain an important perspective into taking life less seriously. Being able to laugh at ourselves, and playfully joke around with others is an important stress relieving practice-- it physically releases endorphins into our bodies, making us feel good and more healthy. With acceptance, we realize that the current day is what it is, and each new day can provide ways to make life better for yourself and those around you. With forgiveness, we are able to love another person, no matter the circumstances. With gratitude, we are able to realize our blessings, and thereby not let jealousy bleed into our lives. And finally, with compassion and generosity, we are able to become truly joyous people, focusing on others, their needs and concerns, and able to address them at any point. Reading this book, I came to realize the key to happiness or joy. Though happiness may appear to be rooted in oneself, it really is not. Happiness is rooted in others, the link and connection we feel to other people. By showing compassion to others, and focusing on bettering others’ lives, we are symbiotically able to better our own by making us more joyous people.

While that might seem random, or maybe too descriptive of what I do in my own time, I wanted to bring it up in front of all of you because that is what I see on a daily basis from everyone seated here today. At the end of the day, everyone is striving for joy in either their own life, or giving joy to someone else’s life. I think instinctually, many of these pillars are performed on a daily basis, which have ultimately made this year for not only this class, but the classes under us, happy. As I said before, I see perspective and humility through people sharing and opening up to others about struggles or concerns, humor and laughter on a daily basis. I see acceptance and gratitude through others charitable acts, from something as small as giving a pencil to someone who doesn’t have one, which was me for basically my whole entire time at St Margaret’s, or a high five while passing through the senior quad. I see forgiveness in the countless acts of compassion and generosity that teachers and students show to one another, truly on a daily basis. All of you are wise even if you didn’t originally think it or know it. To be the most wise, to have the most wisdom, is to invest in other people, and if I were to look back on the St Margaret’s when I am old and nostalgic, it would be to remember the smiling faces of people passing me as I walk from class to class, and the love that radiates from each member if this class.

For the future, I hope that you don’t forget the memories made here every single day. Although I’m sure you have heard this many times, the sentiment isn’t lost, as I know each member of this class will do something great and worthwhile with their future. I hope you make yourself and others happy and more joyous with the time that you are able to spend on this earth. Take each day as a blessing, take it as it is and nothing else, and live each day knowing that to care for one another is to care for a joyous life. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you all. If it were not for all of you I would still be that timid young boy in preschool, scared to death to meet anyone besides my mom.