What is a Baccalaureate, anyway?

Baccalaureate (I looked up the spelling, by the way) is a strange custom. There are several definitions - one is "a religious service for graduates." It is apparently a regional tradition; last year our worship minister stumbled over the word badly trying to make a last minute announcement that there was to be such a service in our building later that day. After several hilarious attempts to pronounce the word he said, "Ya'll - I'm from Arkansas - we don't have 'em there."

For the last eight years Anderson High - the high school across the street - has held their Baccalaureate (I copied and pasted it) in our building and I have handled the sound for most of them. It makes for a long day - especially if you are there for both church services, cram an anniversary lunch in and rush back to the building an hour early because the people in charge insisted that I be there early for mic checks, which they never did.

The Anderson orchestra sets up and plays prelude music and then of course the processional and recessional as the grads march in and out. I greet the orchestra director each year with a comments such as, "Well, another year and here we are again." He replies, "We are the only constant in this whole process." And that's true; we've been through three principals, countless academic advisers, and of course each year they get new suckers volunteers from the PTA to put the show on. And of course, the graduates themselves.

Anderson is one of the better schools in AISD - strong academic and art programs; the grads wear awarded medals signifying excellence - many have several such medals and as they all march in and out they clang like carillons. I'm always impressed with the speeches the students give; seldom with those of the guest speakers.

This year, a young man of Iranian descent was the National Honor Society president and his presentation floored me - and everyone in the room. He was clever, articulate, poised and dead-on with his charge to the class. He told them that in 20 years not one of them would remember or care who the President of Azerbaijan was - even though they stayed up all night to learn it - but they would remember the friends they made and the relationships that were formed.

Then he said, "My Senior year was made memorable by..." and named a young lady's name. There were a few laughs, then he named a second young lady (more laughs), and then a young man, and another, and then he launched into a recitation of student's names strung together so rapidly you just barely recognized them as names. This went on for two or three minutes, and I can't prove it but I think that he named - from memory - every student in the Senior class, because he finished by saying, "... my year would have been diminished if even one of you were not here."

They gave him a standing ovation.