The 80th year of school at Our Lady of Peace ends on Friday, May 29. Our 26 eighth graders join thousands of young men and women who have said goodbye to middle school on their way to high school and beyond.
The class of 2026 will soon have their picture on the wall in the cafeteria. In four short years we will invite them back for breakfast as seniors in high school. Like the OLP class of 2022 they will look at their picture and laugh at the changes those four years have brought upon them. In future years they will bring their children to show them what they looked like back then.
The class of 2026 is not unique in that every group of eighth graders who have matriculated as OLP tigers are unique. This past fall, I took alumni from the class of 1969 for a tour of the building. They told stories about themselves and each other, as well as their teachers, all good-natured ribbing of youthful frivolity. As I write this, one week before the end of the school year, I want to pull my hair out at times about their youthful frivolity. In four, eight, eighteen years, I will laugh with the young man who never tucked his shirt in, or the young lady who managed to miss more homework than she completed.
As with my own four children and ten grandchildren I only want our graduates to know and strive for their purpose in life. I want them to be kind and loving. I want them to value their relationship with God, their family and friends more than their relationship with money and temporary, artificial measures of success. I want them to learn from their failures and turn them into opportunities for learning. I want them to be proud of who they are and to wake up each morning striving to take each day as a blessing.
When one is in the midst of the day, the week, the season of trouble, long days and short nights, it seems impossible that it will ever end. But ask an eighth grader, ask a senior in high school or college, ask a married couple celebrating 25 years of marriage, ask a man of 80 what they think of time. Each and every one will report that it all went by too fast.
I often speak to our middle school students that when they leave Our Lady of Peace, they will be in the continuous process of building or burning bridges. Each path they choose will lead them down a path that will lead them to yet another one. Before long, there is no turning back. At the same time, no matter what road our graduates find themselves on, they should always remember that the darkest roads can sometimes lead to the brightest summits. And that God is with them every step of the way.
It’s not all gloom and deep thought. As we say at morning prayer, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.” Our graduates should embrace each day. Laugh whenever they can and take each opportunity to grow, to learn, to meet new people. Who knows what person they will meet in the years to come who will inspire them to a career, a vocation. Who knows what person they will meet in a high school or college class who will become their lifelong friend, maybe even their future spouse.
I have been blessed to be at 47 graduations from either eighth grade or high school. I have witnessed 47 years of smiling students ready to take that next step. I pray daily for each of them, and I will add our eighth graders to that list of alumni from the schools in which I have had the pleasure to work.
May God Bless the Our Lady of Peace graduating class of 2026. May they always know the love of God and realize the gifts they can add to His Kingdom.
Jim Silcott