Appreciate the ‘Potential of Now’: Brunswick Salutes Class of 2015

On a bright and breezy afternoon of hugs and plaudits, a jubilant crowd rose to cheer the achievements of 93 familiarly uniformed young men — each, for the first time, sporting a white carnation on his lapel.

 

Before a capacity gathering of parents, family, faculty, and friends convened at Dann Gymnasium on May 20, Brunswick School honored the Class of 2015 at its 113th Commencement Exercises. 

 

Headmaster Thomas W. Philip began the ceremonies by addressing the graduating class — including 11 “lifers,” who entered Pre-Kindergarten at Brunswick in 2001, the same year Philip became headmaster.

 

Philip cited Charles Wheelan’s 10 1/2 Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said, specifically the half-chapter entitled “Read The Obituaries,” while seeking an underlying message for this distinguished group of scholars, athletes, artists, actors, and young men of character.

 

Obituaries, Wheelan argues, are true mini-biographies of a life.

 

“In the years ahead, it would be to your benefit to occasionally pause and consider how your biography might eventually read,” Philip said. “What would people say about you in the somewhat distant future when they take in the fullness of your life?”

 

And, in line with Brunswick’s founding in 1902, Philip advised members of the Class of 2015 to rely on the School’s motto — Courage, Honor, Truth — as those biographies are shaped into the future.

 

“We’re all creatures of habit,” he said. “Stay in the habit of letting Courage, Honor, and Truth define your every action, big or small.

 

“More than likely, you’re only one or two pages into a long, distant biography that will run for chapters. Make the most of those unwritten chapters ahead.”

 

Valedictorian Yousef Hindy, who will attend Stanford University next fall, introduced fellow senior Keith Radler, the Class of 2015’s choice for Ivy Speaker.

 

Radler, soon headed for Brown University, profoundly encouraged his classmates not to measure their lives by moments of greatness.

 

“We will all experience many triumphs and defeats and many grand moments that are perceived to define a life,” he said. “But I urge you not to exist purely for these landmarks, for if we live in constant pursuit of far-reaching goals, then we will fail to appreciate the potential of now.

 

“If you live for the diplomas, the final bows, the trophies of life,” Radler concluded, “then once you have what you seek, there will always be something else to reach for — something else to turn your eyes away from the present and the beauty of those around you.”

 

Radler’s remarks set the stage for keynote speaker Tony Robbins, a world-recognized authority on the psychology of leadership, negotiation, organizational turnaround, and peak performance.

 

Robbins has met with, consulted, or advised such international leaders as Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterrand, Princess Diana, and Mother Teresa.

 

He left the Class of 2015 with a simple message.

 

“The choices of your future are now yours. Your whole life is going to be controlled by those decisions,” Robbins said.

 

“If you want to know how to make them, come back to what this incredible institution has taught you. Make them with courage, because a decision made from fear is almost always the wrong decision.

 

“Honor what you value. If decisions are made with honor, they’ll be the right decisions. And be truthful with yourself and know the road ahead. That’s the hardest one.

 

“It’s in your moments of decision that your destiny will be shaped. Men of Brunswick, choose well.”

 

To conclude the day’s events, Headmaster Philip presented members of the Class of 2015 with their diplomas — officially entering 93 remarkable young men into the annals of Brunswick’ 112-year history and pointing them toward bright futures built on a solid foundation of Courage, Honor, Truth.