Graduation: Weathering the Good and Hard Times

I believe it is so important to mark our milestones—to pause and reflect as we grow.

As I pause and reflect on this year, I look back on a year of community (91 percent of our parents volunteered in some capacity at the school—most had more than one person per household volunteer as well) and generosity with 72 percent of our parents participating in one or more of our three fundraisers! Such generosity of time and money is vital to the strength of our little, independent, non-profit school, and we are so grateful. 

As I pause and reflect on our senior class, I think of strength of character and heart. I know they’re 18, but they each have a wisdom beyond their years. They each have a sensitivity and a kindness about them that will be something to behold as they truly come into their own over the next 10 years.

I heard an old Chinese story recently about a poor old man whose horse ran away and his son came running to him to announce the devastating news, crying “We won’t be able to plant our seeds!" And the father said, “Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad.” A few days later, the horse returned with a beautiful mare and his family was excited they would now be able to breed them and climb out of poverty and again the father said, “Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad.”  They bred the horses and his son was out riding one day and broke his leg. His neighbors said, “Oh this is so awful, how can you harvest your fields?” And the father replied, “Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad.” Then war broke out in the land and all the able-bodied men had to go—but not his son. His response? “Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad.”

I suppose you could take different lessons from this story, but I take from it that life is complicated. You will have good times and hard times. The hard times will not last, but neither will the good. The hard times aren’t necessarily bad for you and the good times aren’t necessarily good for you. 

In your mere 18 years of life, you have all five faced a variety of storms. You are better people for how you have weathered those storms even though you may have been miserable in the moment. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of someone looking back on hard times who can’t find some good that came of it. Usually we can even make a list of how we’re better for the experience! We don’t tend to learn as much from the good times, but they certainly help us heal and blossom and rejuvenate. 

As you all head into the world, I hope you have fond memories of the Fulton School, I hope you have all of the skills you need to tackle college responsibilities and academics, but I really hope we have given you a foundation of wisdom—to get through the hard times well, to get through the good times well. 

And now, another group of great students become alumni at the Fulton School at St. Albans. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the Fulton School Class of 2012: Brett Joseph Green, Adam Shaw Taussig, Evan Uhlenbrock, Cassandra Kean Williams, and Di (Claude) Wu.

-Kara Douglass
Head of School
The Fulton School at St. Albans