‘The surviving and thriving class of 2021’

Following is an abridged version of the address given by valedictorian Jude Ferrigno at the Gloucester Catholic High School commencement on June 3.

Today, you may see us as you want to see us — in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.

Oh. I’m sorry. That was “The Breakfast Club.” I don’t know how that got in there. [shuffles papers]. Ah here we are.

The fact is: we didn’t have a normal year. Instead, we got a plague.

And … as we stand here on the ledges of our lives, about to jump off into the great unknown, I want to shine a light on a couple of things:

What we’ve achieved and who we’ve become.

I am proud to be co-valedictorian, but that accomplishment pales in comparison to the achievement of our entire class. Through once-in-a-century circumstances, we found a way, not just to survive a tumultuous senior year, but to thrive.

Mask versus no mask. Virtual learning versus in-person, sports versus no sports, parties versus well, mostly still parties.

But we didn’t do this alone.

We had help: from each other, from our families and from the faculty and staff of Gloucester Catholic. A wise man, named Mr. Flynn, once said [Mr. Flynn impersonation]: “Jude, you gotta step up, You gotta carry your own skis.”

Mr. Flynn, I am proud to say that as a class: we did and we have.

But we didn’t do it alone.

Respectfully, sometimes we carried each others’ skis. When they became too heavy, we banded together to lift each other up. When I dislocated my knee-cap, friends, family and staff helped carry my skis. A few months later, we did the same when someone got sick or their family lost a loved one.

We did it together.

They say that diamonds are made under pressure. Look around. What you see here is a field of diamonds, of every facet, cut and color. We shine because we have been in extreme circumstances and have come out the other side, stronger, tougher and more brilliant. Can we please take a moment to recognize what we have become, not alone in isolation, but together, as the most resilient Gloucester Catholic community of this or any other century?

But we are not just diamonds. We are also Gloucester Catholic Rams. And the thing about Rams is: we may butt heads from time to time, but we always seek the tallest peaks with the best views where we can observe the majesty of God’s world now and far into the future.

I want to paraphrase a speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V where Henry talks about how people who survived an epic battle will be viewed. It’s what I want to say to my classmates:

Whoever is with us today will be remembered. And those who are not a part of this class will fall silent when we talk about the class of 2021. They will wish they were a part of this amazing senior class.

We didn’t get a normal homecoming, but we got closer. We didn’t get a senior trip, but what an amazing journey we took together.

And now and forever more, we will be remembered as a group, as a team, as a family. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers and sisters. The surviving and thriving class of 2021.

I know I speak for everyone in this house of God and in this class when I say, we are proud that we did this, but we are prouder still that we did this together, as friends, as family, as diamonds who shined brilliantly under the pressure of an extraordinary year.