Register
Parents
Parents of current McDonogh students may sign up for website accounts. Signing up for an account allows a parent to access the online directory, DASH, and your customized parent Personal Page.
Alumni
Alumni can create an account in order to take advantage of McDonogh Connect or Pledgemail.
Login
News & Photos
Kyle Rice addresses his classmates at graduation
Thank you, McDonogh Nation, for allowing me to speak today. Thank you, Neal, for your wise words, and all of your wisdom over the years. And thank you to everyone, who came out today to support the class of 2010.
It has been quite an adventure getting re-acclimated to the McDonogh lifestyle since getting back from Mission Emmanuel’s trip to Ghana a week ago, and it is a miracle that I am even alive to be here with you today, after somehow surviving the wild, hold on for your dear life, van rides throughout the dusty roads of Western Africa, with a Ghanaian driver who was essentially playing a game of “dodge the pot hole” while going 80 miles per hour around turns, drafting off of other cars, as Mr. Kreibel put it, “like we were at Talladega.” Our driver would also accelerate through crowded groups of people like he was playing a game of Red Rover Red Rover with the van. Only no one else knew they were playing. Luckily though, we survived the adventurous roads and made it back to McDonogh today, and I can now honestly say that it is a humbling honor to stand before everyone and say a few words.
I’d like to start out by quoting my mom, who I was talking to a few days ago about graduation, as she tried to explain to me the complexity of emotion that comes with a day like today. She said, “Kyle, you now stand at the frontier, the frontier between the familiar, the comfortable, but also the longing, and the fear of the unknown.” And her words immediately took me back to another memory from my trip to Ghana last week. This memory involving a small disabled boy of about 7, standing at his own frontier, and his own threshold. We, the Americans, were playing hacky sack with some nice kids from a village in Koffuridia, and, when my eyes gazed outside the circle of play, I saw Eddie, a little boy standing on one leg, an oversized crutch propping up the other side of his body. He was outside the circle, outside the fun. And every pore of him wanted to play, just like the other kids, but he couldn’t. A very little distance stood between him and me—between where he was, and where he wanted to be. And while that image may seem distant to what we are dealing with today, that complexity of emotion is certainly present. It’s one of those moments where you don’t know how to feel, simply because you feel so many things. That’s what today is. You can’t capture it with one word or even two; you probably can’t capture it with all of the words. It’s just one of those moments.
The importance of today really comes down to two things, and those are everything you have done to get to this day, and everything you do after this day. Graduating isn’t special because it’s just June 11th, it’s special because of all the days that have lead up to June 11th. It’s a celebration of every action that has made you as you are presently, here today, graduation.
Commencement is just the opposite though because commencement is the start of something. Commencement is a celebration of what you are becoming, of what you’re starting. And so Commencement can only be as important as what it is that we are commencing. And so the question simply becomes, what are you starting today? What is today the beginning of?
If the past gives us any indication to the answer to that question, then evidence only points to the start of something great, something genuine, and something fulfilling because “great,” “genuine” and “fulfilling” is exactly what you started when you arrived at this school. It is what you have been working on while you have been attending this school, and it is what you have completed today as you leave this school. Now you start another journey.
And on your journey, support will never be a problem. And if you don’t agree, then look around you today. You are surrounded by your support. You’re surrounded by people who are here for you, who are celebrating your commencement.
A foundation will never be a problem either. Because you sit on your foundation right now, it’s the school we rest on. It’s the buildings behind you, the teacher’s in front of you, it’s where you learned, it’s where you became you. Everything that you need is present here today: your support, your foundation, and love that surrounds you. It’s a special day.
And so the new question now becomes not just what are starting today, but what are you willing to do to make sure it is finished. How active will you be in the direction your life takes you?
Because sooner or later it hits you, that for every you in the world, there is an Eddie, and an Emmanuel, and they exist for a lot more reasons than just someone you can send bikes to, or books to. They exist because knowing them makes you want to take responsibility for you actions, to honor the support and foundation that we have been blessed with right now. It makes you want to start something that matters.
And so as we commence our last summer together here today, our last chance to bond with our closest friends and family before the responsibilities and demands of life can no longer be pushed aside and the distance between us no longer spans from Towson to Reisterstown, from Annapolis to the farm country in Hereford, but instead across states, countries, and continents. Hopefully we will look back at today, June 11th, as the day that we were capable, the day we had everything we needed, the day we had everything present, all the tools at our disposal, and we made a commitment to start something as special as what we just finished. If the days after today are as meaningful as the days before today, than I think we will have succeeded. Thank you for listening, and congratulations to the class of 2010.
Thank you, McDonogh Nation, for allowing me to speak today. Thank you, Neal, for your wise words, and all of your wisdom over the years. And thank you to everyone, who came out today to support the class of 2010.
It has been quite an adventure getting re-acclimated to the McDonogh lifestyle since getting back from Mission Emmanuel’s trip to Ghana a week ago, and it is a miracle that I am even alive to be here with you today, after somehow surviving the wild, hold on for your dear life, van rides throughout the dusty roads of Western Africa, with a Ghanaian driver who was essentially playing a game of “dodge the pot hole” while going 80 miles per hour around turns, drafting off of other cars, as Mr. Kreibel put it, “like we were at Talladega.” Our driver would also accelerate through crowded groups of people like he was playing a game of Red Rover Red Rover with the van. Only no one else knew they were playing. Luckily though, we survived the adventurous roads and made it back to McDonogh today, and I can now honestly say that it is a humbling honor to stand before everyone and say a few words.
I’d like to start out by quoting my mom, who I was talking to a few days ago about graduation, as she tried to explain to me the complexity of emotion that comes with a day like today. She said, “Kyle, you now stand at the frontier, the frontier between the familiar, the comfortable, but also the longing, and the fear of the unknown.” And her words immediately took me back to another memory from my trip to Ghana last week. This memory involving a small disabled boy of about 7, standing at his own frontier, and his own threshold. We, the Americans, were playing hacky sack with some nice kids from a village in Koffuridia, and, when my eyes gazed outside the circle of play, I saw Eddie, a little boy standing on one leg, an oversized crutch propping up the other side of his body. He was outside the circle, outside the fun. And every pore of him wanted to play, just like the other kids, but he couldn’t. A very little distance stood between him and me—between where he was, and where he wanted to be. And while that image may seem distant to what we are dealing with today, that complexity of emotion is certainly present. It’s one of those moments where you don’t know how to feel, simply because you feel so many things. That’s what today is. You can’t capture it with one word or even two; you probably can’t capture it with all of the words. It’s just one of those moments.
The importance of today really comes down to two things, and those are everything you have done to get to this day, and everything you do after this day. Graduating isn’t special because it’s just June 11th, it’s special because of all the days that have lead up to June 11th. It’s a celebration of every action that has made you as you are presently, here today, graduation.
Commencement is just the opposite though because commencement is the start of something. Commencement is a celebration of what you are becoming, of what you’re starting. And so Commencement can only be as important as what it is that we are commencing. And so the question simply becomes, what are you starting today? What is today the beginning of?
If the past gives us any indication to the answer to that question, then evidence only points to the start of something great, something genuine, and something fulfilling because “great,” “genuine” and “fulfilling” is exactly what you started when you arrived at this school. It is what you have been working on while you have been attending this school, and it is what you have completed today as you leave this school. Now you start another journey.
And on your journey, support will never be a problem. And if you don’t agree, then look around you today. You are surrounded by your support. You’re surrounded by people who are here for you, who are celebrating your commencement.
A foundation will never be a problem either. Because you sit on your foundation right now, it’s the school we rest on. It’s the buildings behind you, the teacher’s in front of you, it’s where you learned, it’s where you became you. Everything that you need is present here today: your support, your foundation, and love that surrounds you. It’s a special day.
And so the new question now becomes not just what are starting today, but what are you willing to do to make sure it is finished. How active will you be in the direction your life takes you?
Because sooner or later it hits you, that for every you in the world, there is an Eddie, and an Emmanuel, and they exist for a lot more reasons than just someone you can send bikes to, or books to. They exist because knowing them makes you want to take responsibility for you actions, to honor the support and foundation that we have been blessed with right now. It makes you want to start something that matters.
And so as we commence our last summer together here today, our last chance to bond with our closest friends and family before the responsibilities and demands of life can no longer be pushed aside and the distance between us no longer spans from Towson to Reisterstown, from Annapolis to the farm country in Hereford, but instead across states, countries, and continents. Hopefully we will look back at today, June 11th, as the day that we were capable, the day we had everything we needed, the day we had everything present, all the tools at our disposal, and we made a commitment to start something as special as what we just finished. If the days after today are as meaningful as the days before today, than I think we will have succeeded. Thank you for listening, and congratulations to the class of 2010.