Following is an abridged version of the address given by valedictorian Mia Caso at the Wildwood Catholic Academy commencement on June 2.
The idea of writing a speech and delivering it here tonight was frightening. I was so desperate I immediately went to SparkNotes to find summaries on how to condense 1,460 days into a five-minute speech which doesn’t include words as defined by Webster’s dictionary, quotes from well-known authors or generic graduation cliches. I do not want to bore you, but what wise advice can an 18-year-old give to other 18-year-olds who have had many of the same experiences and challenges? What can be said to the older members of the congregation who have more experience and knowledge than I? It is a daunting task. The only thing I feel comfortable saying is that none of us can ever fully prepare for what we will encounter on this journey of life. ..
Four years ago when we started high school, it was smooth sailing. No one could have even imagined a masked society, social distancing, quarantine and virtual learning. …
As juniors, we had the well-known junior stress of preparing for the SATs and keeping our grades up to the best of our abilities. We were given a glimpse of what it felt like to be upperclassmen, especially in February when we received our class rings and had our ring day ceremony. In all honesty, the beginning of junior year is a blur because of all the successful achievements from our fall and winter sport teams and school events. But all of a sudden, in the middle of a productive year, what seemed like a harmless virus that was thousands of miles away, seized the world. Suddenly we closed for two weeks, or so we thought.
We took these two weeks as just a minor inconvenience, not understanding how two weeks could turn into two months, and then turn into almost two years. We were unable to experience prom, spring sports, and daily events that we never thought we wouldn’t be able to do again. Our original priorities associated with junior year were no longer of significant importance. …
Then, just a month later, our own little world of Wildwood Catholic also received a devastating blow: the permanent closure of our beloved school! How can you possibly be prepared for one curveball after the next? The simple answer is, you can’t. But you can control the response, and we did, as the entire community mobilized to save our alma mater.
When school stopped, when time stopped, when the world stopped, we started to learn how to overcome our hardships. … We all became acquainted with the word “Zoom” and learned what it was like to spend more time with our families. There was a constant worry of who would contract the disease, who would recover, who would live and who would die, and always in the background, the fear that we would never enter the beloved halls of our school again. We used this time to prove our value and worth as a community, even more so, as a family. We learned how to develop patience in the midst of waiting, wondering, and hoping. Then in early June, after much community support, prayers, and supreme efforts by donors and supporters of Catholic education, we received the news from the bishop that we all longed to hear. The school was saved.
While this news was life giving, the deadly virus still plagued us, and we were unable to return to our normal lives.
As stressful as it was when the world stopped, things became more challenging when life started again. We entered school in September with the restrictions, precautions and protocols that accompanied a pandemic. …
In so many ways, it has been a difficult year, but it has also been a triumphant year. Because, as cliche as this sounds, sometimes a curveball can unexpectedly result in a home run, and our class has hit many home runs. … We have students who are going to Notre Dame, The University of Pennsylvania and other colleges of their dreams. We have basketball stars who have surpassed 1,000 points during their high school careers, students who worked courageously with the public throughout the COVID crises, athletes who continued to train and participate in their sports, actors and singers who performed in excellent school plays, students who maintained high GPAs no matter the circumstances, and so much more. …
We have learned a great deal, and have been shown, by our parents, teachers, and community, how to react to the curve balls which life throws at us.
We, the class of 2021, are now more than ready to march out into this bold new world.
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