So here you are surrounded by family, friends and classmates for this important moment of Moving Up. You are also joined by the collective wisdom of the eighth graders who have come before you as captured in the dream flags above us.

So it was exciting and I confess a little scary when I began to examine your dream flags and search for the story, your story, that tied them together. In the process, I learned something about what each of you was thinking and the people that stand out for you as having something relevant to say. Many were familiar to me, but just as many were new voices; learning about them was another gift that you have given. One of these new voices offered the following:


Nice. A little moody, but also suggestive of potential and possibility and attributed to one Effy Stonem. I wasn’t familiar with her work, which I guess isn’t all that surprising because she’s not really real; she’s a fiction, a character in the British TV series Skins. And what of Skins? It follows the lives of a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the their last two years of high school and chronicles their dysfunctional families, mental illness, adolescent sexuality, substance abuse, and . . . well, the list goes on. Maybe not so nice. So I’ve barely started and I’m already stuck on the first flag, but one of you quoting Sherlock Holmes lends a hand:


Effy? Sherlock? And then like that it’s suddenly clear. Many of your flags are filled with the voices of characters. And I’m a little bit uneasy because it almost seems like these characters have taken on their own voices and left their authors behind. And these characters seem to point to a number of essential themes: our sense of self, the promise of potential, the challenge of risk, the desire for purpose, our need for others and community, a commitment to activism, and the value of a life lived well.

So from Gossip Girls' (which I confess I have seen) Serena Van Der Woodsen we have:


From Harry Potter’s mentor Dumbledore,

From the Lion King’s Rafiki,


From Jedi Master Yoda,


From Peter Pan,


And from a bit of dialog from Doctor Who where the Doctor speaks with one William Shakespeare (character to author who in this instance is really just another character) and to top it off quotes an actual author:


Which brings us to one Forrest Gump who tells us that


So let’s open up this proverbial box of chocolates and see what we get. But before we do, let’s be clear about one thing. The aforementioned sampler of dream flag wisdom comes to us not from Effy Stonem, Sherlock Holmes, Serena Van Der Woodsen, Dumbledore, Rafiki, Yoda, Peter Pan, Doctor Who or Forrest Gump, but from Sir Conan Doyle, Felicia D. Henderson, J.K. Rowling, Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, Linda Woolverton, Sean Stewart, J.M. Barrie, Gareth Roberts, and Eric Roth. All authors. They are the ghosts in the machine of this cavalcade of characters. Without them, there is no story. Let’s keep that in mind as we explore the authorship of your story.

This Moving Up provides a moment for us to think about the essential character of this class and in turn to think about the 41 individual authors seated before us today. As the esteemed Dr. Suess observes,


So while you have journeyed together to get to this moment, at some essential level, you have also made this journey on your own. You have asked yourself, “Who am I?” and “How should I be?” Your dream flags provide some clues. As Marilyn Monroe observed,


And in the words of Abraham Lincoln who was a major figure in your inquiry in core this year,


That said, I’m not sure that this class has ever had any trouble remaining silent and only rarely have you acted the fool. More importantly, you have a profound sense of faith in yourselves, which has allowed you to, as Kanye West suggests,


Making sense of self is hard work and as one of you quoting Tyler the Creator suggests,


But we can’t live entirely in our heads and our sense of self is always evolving; we are always in the process of becoming. I see before me boundless possibilities of what is and what might be. Shakespeare calls out from one of your flags to remind us that


And as Paul Brandt cautions,


So the task then for each of us is to discover our true potential and in the process not let ourselves be pulled into what the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre calls “bad faith.” When individuals adopt false values and disown their innate freedom to act authentically, this is bad faith. It is a kind of self-deception and connects to the flag that provides the following caution from Albert Einstein:


It’s even worse when the fish is the one judging itself by this standard. So how have we asked you to realize your true potential so that you can be in “good faith”? We’ve asked you to try and to fail and then to try again and again. And in the process, each time you’ve learned something new about yourselves and the world around you. We’ve asked you to do this in your classrooms, on fields and courts, on stages, through conflicts and through friendships. We have repeatedly asked you to take risks and to be thoughtful about it. Several flags touch on this idea.

From Rihana,


From Chris Brown,


An ironic pairing, but maybe it really does point to the power of what can be learned from our mistakes. And from Victor Kiam,


We have talked regularly in Adolescent Issues classes about the consequences that can attach to risk when it is divorced from thinking connected to your personal values and beliefs. As Adele offers,


Two flags identify fear as an obstacle to taking thoughtful risks, fulfilling our potential, and realizing our true sense of self. The first reminds us that


And the second quotes Jim Morrison who asks us to


When asked in an interview what he means when he says, “freedom,” He offers that


So again, we are back to that tension between the author and the character with a role to play. Authorship is about purpose and intention. This is a class that is not only brimming with potential, but also with purpose. And you have the flags to support you. From Bob Marley,


Maintaining one’s sense of purpose is tricky stuff because at any moment it can be challenged by competing perceptions of what is real. A nice little encapsulation of the author/character conundrum is captured in the flag that quotes an imagined Charles Dickens talking to the sci-fi hero Dr. Who and is properly attributed to the screenplay writer Mark Gatis. Well done! And as a reward, I’ll provide the full quote (and scene) from said imagined Dickens:


It has certainly not been for nothing. Purpose is what has brought you here today. Purpose and the understanding of the value embedded in the flag that says,


When you put all these things together, it’s as Big Sean says,


But we would do well to consider the brief cautionary tale from Ellen Degeneres captured on one of your flags,


If there is one theme that has run through all of your middle school experience, it is the importance of community. It’s the other who helps us to know “where the hell we are.” A purposeful life is one that connects us deeply with others. I look out at you and see a class that is deeply connected. As Michael Jackson offers from one of the flags above you,


So this is the point in the speech where you are probably wondering something to the effect of “When’s Mark going to get back to the British TV series Skins? He seemed to make a big deal about it at the beginning.”

Wow! You are really on top of things, because the next flag quotes Skins’ character Cassie Ainsworth. But just to add a little complexity and to blur the distinction between character and actor, here’s what Hannah Murray who played Cassie in the series had to say about Cassie:


Good stuff. And what does Ms. Ainsworth have for us?


You have not always been your best selves. You have challenged each other and you have challenged us. Maybe you have even challenged your parents? However, when it really mattered, you have been able to look beyond your own needs and to see them in the context of the various communities to which you belong. You have recognized the needs of the other, often putting them ahead of your own and you have done amazing work on behalf of others. You know what Ronald Reagan understood when he said,


This has been nowhere more evident than in your deep commitment to this year’s social justice work. You understand what Dr. Seuss’ Lorax means when he says,

One of your flags quotes Jim Carrey who with a certain degree of irreverence says,


As Chap has taught us to say, “Ouch.” But there is something else going on here as Winston Churchill reminds us,


Serious indeed. Through your work, you have discovered that for many the playing field is not a level one. You have encountered the tragic consequences of hatred, intolerance, misunderstanding, prejudice and discrimination and you have not been deterred. You have each in your own way and collectively acknowledged that we can make our world a better one. You understand that activism and the fight for social justice requires that in doing what is right,


and that


So where does this leave us? Where does it leave you? I feel compelled to offer the following as I have in most other Moving Up speeches. Look to your right, to the left, to the front and to the back. As a class, you will not be together in this way ever again. Savor the moment. Hold on to it so that you may try to return to it and while you do consider the words of Stephen Chbosky who calls out from a flag to remind you that in this moment


But also consider Ingrid Michaelson who suggests that


I do not take these words to mean that you have reached the pinnacle moment of your life with today’s Moving Up and that it is all downhill from here. What I think it means is that there is no better day than this day right now to make sure that you are living your life to the fullest. Don’t wait for some future day and look back with regret. Start today and then start again tomorrow. Always be in process. Always be becoming. And as Elbert Hubbard observed,


And take heed of the following advice from Robert Frost,


And at the same time, hold on to your memories of this time and this place and the yearning desire that we all have for the places and people we love, which is what I think Audrey Hepburn (actress, character, and icon) was getting at in the flag that reminds us that


So if in retrospect you now realize that you have been more character than author on this journey, I call on you before all who are assembled here today to rip yourself out of the pages that have so far been written and to write yourself, as author, the story that you deserve. We look forward to reading your accumulated works.

Congratulations!