Alumni Graduation Speech
By Perry Davidoff, Class of 2010
June 13, 2010

May 2009.
The crowd is hushed. Nervous beads of sweat trickle down the faces of the class of 2010 as they wait in anticipation for the most important announcement of their lives. They have worked and trained so hard, together, to be in this position. So as they wait for the Student Council President to reveal their fate, they cannot help but notice their unity. It’s defined by the color of the clothing they are all wearing. Blue.

One day every year, inter grade rivalries are settled through competition on the sports fields, in the cafeteria and in the library. Each grade, assigned a color during freshman year, battles with the other two grades for their place in Gann Academy history. Activities like basketball, the marshmallow toss, and the solving of the dreaded SAT question of the day act as the measure of a successful grade. The brutal struggle goes back to the early days of the New Jewish High School and remains fierce to this day.

On this fine morning in the early spring of 2009, the Blue Junior team members set out to bring their aggressiveness together to war. Green, Red and Blue filled the school. I saw that my teammates were primed and ready for battle. Whenever I located a fellow teammate we shared an intense glance, a game face. We all knew what that glance meant. It was the determination that together as one grade, we could accomplish a goal that would make us cheer more than seeing “Snow Day” on our First Class Email accounts.Last Place in color war.

Yes, it’s true. Much to probably all of your surprise, we went into the color war hoping for a last place finish. We knew it was not going to be easy. Our natural competitiveness made it difficult for us to roll over and let the younger grades just beat us. The last place finish goal had to be disguised such that collectively we would do just poorly enough to be placed in the record books. This was a goal set by the class of 2010 immediately following our Sophomore year loss.

So when our Student Council President announced that we had finished in third place for the third year in a row, we were excited, to say the least. We came together in the middle of the gym, and in a huddle of blue-colored joy, we jumped and chanted “Three Peat, Three Peat.” As the freshmen and sophomores looked at us quizzically, we realized that our class had come together in a way we had never experienced before.

As I stand here as a representative of my class, you might ask why I have chosen this proud moment to share with you.As many of you know our class is made up of 74 individuals. Over our four years at Gann, we have each established, and for the most part, achieved our individual goals. We have attempted the perfect history essay, honed our individual athletic skills, practiced lines for the play, nurtured individual relationships, studied for tests and SAT’s and aspired to a college of choice.  Each of these goals, big or small, is a part of our lives and has helped us grow. Yet, these individual aspirations did not make us into the proud class of 2010. Our special and unique characteristic was exemplified by the joy we experienced as a group with our color war “threepeat”.

I believe that most of us would describe a group event or effort when asked about memorable moments at school. In the jazz band, I had urges to bring out my inner Charlie Parker and bust into wild saxophone solos, until the considered voice of conductor Mr. Levenson taught me to appreciate the beautiful harmonious band melody -on beat, on rhythm, and on note. In basketball, each one of us started  as future NBA stars, but the reality is there aint too many 7 foot Gann alumnae competing in the NBA finals today. Yet by the end of the season our team of 14 individuals, in our proud red heifer jerseys had worked together on fast breaks and defensive stops to go deep into the NEPSAC playoffs. Individuals bring their unique talents to the Red Curtain Drama Club but the magic of the Black Box theater is a result of the synchrony and chemistry between the actors. Team and group oriented goals have been a major part of our lives at Gann Academy day in and day out. We have been encouraged, supported and stimulated to turn our academic goals into successes. The frustrating red marks and comments on our papers eventually became beautiful pieces of poetry; the stumbling first steps of our Czechoslovakian project became a museum creation which will live with us forever and the many false starts on our physics roller coaster projects transformed into magical success.

 On that important color war day in 2009 we learned that the definition of success is not always what is determined by outsiders. We defined and found success in a manner that others would consider failure. There are certainly many who would direct us, graduates of 2010, to traditional futures. They would tell us, “Be conservative, follow the lead and you will find success.” That day, helped me appreciate how we as individuals and as groups in society, must define success for tomorrow.
 
The world feels so different today. As I read the newspapers or watch the news I am struck by how many issues confront us. The recent severe recession, wars all around us, hatred between citizens of the world, global warming, devastating oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico – the list goes on and on. Our generation, like those before us, will need to re-define tomorrow’s goals and what success means. As we approach our lives in college and abroad, each of us will have the opportunity to start to determine a path to success. Some paths will be group directed, and others will be determined by personal goals. We will follow some paths that were created already, and others that were previously undiscovered. However, at the end of the day, success is relative and dare I say, subjective.

I know I am anxious about tomorrow and the big world that is out there but I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to be part of this class and this amazing Jewish Day School. Gann has provided us each with an incredible set of tools to define our goals and determine our successes in different, sometimes unconventional ways.
I thank our parents and grandparents for giving us this opportunity and please know that we recognize and appreciate the sacrifices you have made to allow us to have this education. On behalf of the class I also want to thank Rabbi Baker and each and every teacher for their dedication and commitment to us as individuals and as a group. You have provided us with the tools to forge our paths as informed and knowledgeable Jewish citizens of the world.

I feel sure that we, the class of 2010, will commit our energies to making a difference. I am proud to stand with you, class of 2010 as we step out into the next stage of our lives and blaze our own trails. Thank you.