A Special Moment at the End of the School Year

Today is a very special day, but it might not seem like one. This is not the transition from middle school to high school – we did that last year. And you’re not going from IGCSEs to A Levels – that won’t happen until next year. It’s also not the big moment when you leave high school and enter something like adult life. That’s three years away, which really isn’t that long if you think about it. After all, it’s already been three years since Skibidi Toilet first appeared.

I want to talk about time, because I’ve heard a lot of students tell me how insignificant this moment is, and I disagree. But I also see the problem.

The problem with living in time is that we get so caught up looking at the past and worrying about the future that the present becomes like a single point in geometry. A position without breadth and magnitude. A calendar of assignments and alerts. A schedule of tasks that doesn’t leave time for anything to just happen. 

The twentieth century’s greatest minds, including Einstein and Proust, showed that this way of thinking about time is unnatural, but it’s also hard to escape. As Viet Tanh Nguyen wrote, “The open secret of the clock, naked for all to see, was that we were only going in circles.”

In other words, rushing toward the big moments doesn’t actually get us there any faster. And the faster we try to get there, the harder it gets to stand still in the present. The Irish author James Joyce said to “Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.” Alan Watts said that if we can’t live in the present, then we can’t live anywhere.

Attention is more than focusing on what the teacher says. It’s how we connect with the world, how we learn, how we care about others. It’s something we can practice – by being quiet, by listening without thinking about what to say next, by stepping away from the noise and distraction every now and then. 

Humanity’s great teachers – whether they were philosophers, poets, prophets, or scientists – all understood the power of silence and stillness to let the mind settle, like a muddy pond becoming clear.

That brings me back to time, and I think what’s wonderful about being a child. Children start out being unaware of the past and unafraid of the future. They live in the present. That’s your superpower, too. And it’s an easy gateway to wisdom.

Wisdom is different from knowledge. Knowledge is knowing facts. Wisdom is knowing how to live, not by getting a red stripe (as impressive as that is), but by being kind to others, being brave in standing up for them, being honest with yourself, and paying attention to what really matters. And the older you get, the harder it is to slow down, listen, reflect, and learn that kind of wisdom. It’s something to protect and to practice.

Unfortunately, people are not raised to realize that the ability to be present is essential in our interaction with the world. Being present is what balances our ability for critical thinking, moral judgment, and creativity. Attention means letting the mind function freely, without forcing anything to happen. A Japanese Zen poem says,

          Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
          Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

That means that every time a teacher tells you to pay attention because this will be on the test, you’ll need this when you get older, you won’t get a big paycheck without it – that’s a contradiction. If you’re busy thinking about how learning will change your future, you won’t be learning right now. As it says in the Gospel of Matthew, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Attention opens the door to beauty. To finding joy in everyday things. To appreciating a laugh with a friend, a flower growing in a crack in the sidewalk on the way to Drukarska, the sunrise shining on the Sky Tower, or a quiet moment on a poofa alone with your own thoughts.

“Life is not hurrying on to a receding future nor hankering after an imagined past,” wrote the Welsh poet R. S. Thomas – “It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush. To a brightness that seems as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.”

Presence is also about gratitude, and this is a perfect day to be grateful. I’ll quote Mr. Rogers:

From the time you were very little, you’ve had people who have smiled you into smiling, people who have talked you into talking, sung you into singing, loved you into loving. So, on this extra special day, let’s take some time to think of those extra special people. Some of them may be right here, some may be far away. Some may even be in heaven. No matter where they are, deep down you know they’ve always wanted what was best for you. They’ve always cared about you beyond measure and have encouraged you to be true to the best within you.

So please take a moment this morning to say thanks, out loud or in your heart, to the people who helped bring you this day.

So what happens next? More Gimkit from Mr. Juma, more PEEL paragraphs in English, more MagicSchoolAI with Mr. Hehir, and plenty of changes. But also another opportunity to pay attention. Life, says Lester Freamon in The Wire, is everything that happens when we are waiting for the things that never come. Or as the Russian author Boris Pasternak put it, “When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.”

To sum up my point, today is a very special day. It’s one we’re proud and blessed to share with you. So thank you for being here, and congratulations.