Father Robert, Father Raymond, Father Michael, Mr. Biancamano, parents, teachers, friends and fellow graduates….
My name is Kaitlin and most of my classmates know me as the shortest and the one fluent in Spanish. Yes it is true I am the shortest but I am sadly not fluent in Spanish. Anyways people tend to judge other people and give them labels like shortest, tallest, prettiest, skinniest, fattest, and the list goes on. But in truth the person that will call another person a name is really insecure about themselves. I am proud of myself and no label will bring me down. As the shortest I have had to learn to adapt. By this I mean walking tall with confidence, my head held high, and walking on your tippy toes... As we move onto high school that is what we need to do, walk tall because we will all be the little ones. We are all prepared spiritually from the religious values we are taught at St. Pauls. If you were to sneeze in our classroom it is automatic that you will receive 8 blessings and you would always find the 8th grade in church on the first Friday of every month for Eucharistic adoration. I will never forget praying in Mr.Grant’s class, for Yao Ming’s foot and other intentions.
We are also prepared academically from St. Paul’s with our classes. Class was always educational and we always managed to have fun too: whether it was pointing out a typo for candy in science, asking for some more veal in math class or getting off topic in language arts. We make all these preparations but no one can truly be prepared for the high school and life situations that we will encounter ahead. To help overcome some of life’s obstacles you need a friend, a good friend. I am very blessed to be in such a small class where I was able to communicate with everyone. And I know that as we move forward we will meet new people and make new friends, but that doesn’t erase some of the life long friendships and memories we have made. Memories of joy, sadness, embarrassment, laughter, and even hurt. My class was able to stick together even through the good and difficult times of middle school.
I want to say a huge thank you to all of the middle school teachers for teaching us our subjects even when we didn’t want to learn. I also want to thank all the parents of the graduates for encouraging us on those all nighters to finish our projects and encouraging us academically when we excelled and when we had to break the bad news of a poor grade. Lastly, I want to thank my classmates for making my St Paul School years memorable and I wish everyone the best of luck next year and the years ahead.
Kaitlin Moriarty
Salutatorian Speech.....
I would like to begin by thanking Father Robert, Father Michael, Father Raymond, Mr. Biancamano, the Saint Paul School faculty, staff, fellow graduates and especially our Parents for helping and encouraging us throughout our many years at Saint Paul School.
I am sure that most of us think it’s scary to realize just how fast our time at Saint Paul’s has come and gone. It almost seems like yesterday when we were in kindergarten and we never thought the kindergarten graduation would ever come, never mind this day. In first grade we thought we would never make it to the upstairs floor, never mind this day. In fourth grade we thought the middle school would never come, never mind this day. By the sixth grade we couldn’t wait for daily dismissal, graduation was the furthest thing on our minds. Now, as we gather today we are all in shock and can’t help but to ask ourselves, “Where did all the time go?” Our time and dedication was exchanged by this great school into intelligence, joy, Catholic virtues, and a lot of laughter. Saint Paul’s has given us an education and values that would be hard to obtain from any other school. This education and the values that we have received we must bring forth to our high school or as Mr. Grant refers to it, ‘a Shark Tank’. Our education is the reason why we were accepted to some of the most advanced classes that our high schools have to offer. The thanks for this goes to our teachers, who are the best at inspiring us, and demonstrate everyday their love for education and their students.
Saint Paul has given us a multitude of values through every thing we have done. Through athletics we learned how to work as a team and to trust one another. From mock trial we learned how to formulate, sustain and project arguments which will help us in everyday life situations. Academically, Saint Paul’s teachers rewarded us with all their subject matter, made us work hard, and inspired our curiosities. We learned to work to our fullest potential and to never give up, no matter how hard a test, a quiz, or a final exam because the teachers were extremely dedicated in helping us to persevere. We had science fairs and travel fairs, we stayed up all night working on them with a mere hope of just finishing on time. This is as close as we got in preparing for the real world, working feverishly 16 hours straight through a weekend on a project that, in our minds, could determine the path for the rest of our life. If only our teachers knew how dedicated our parents are and how cranky they can become when missing a few hours of sleep.
Another value Saint Paul has given us is friendship. We are a small class, so it was rather easy to learn a great deal about each other, especially since we were in such a great community created and maintained by our faculty and staff. With the help of our teachers we were able get to know each other even better because we got to cooperate on projects, and even though the projects were rather challenging this got us to work together, as a team, using our individual talents to accomplish the task at hand. Since we grew up and matured in such a healthy and balanced community, we learned how to make positive bonds with our friends, build relationships which will help us substantially in high school, and beyond when we make new friends and form strong bonds; we will always be able to reflect back on our Saint Paul experience.
Charity is another core value that I would like to mention as one that is integral part of a Saint Paul education. We have learned throughout our years at Saint Paul to try to help the less fortunate and not just financially but also spiritually. Not only has Saint Paul taught us to give to the needy but they also have also taught us to guide and comfort people, something that is truly unique to our Catholic education. Saint Paul has taught us to love one another and to work our hardest to try and follow the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes with all our heart. This will help in the future significantly because it will build a closer relationship not only with other people but especially with God. This has taught us to respect others and can only have a positive effect on our character.
In these last three years, we have grown to know and be known by every single teacher and their own specific, yet creative and surprisingly fun way of teaching. We had so many fun moments at Saint Paul’s, one couldn’t even count the amount of fun and laughter we have had here. All of the teachers really tried to get the students to enjoy their education; for example, in Mr. Moore’s class, we liked telling math puns the last couple minutes of each class or telling Chuck Norris jokes that are ridiculous yet funny at the same time. In 8th grade, we had Senior Zimmitti for Spanish. It was amazing how creative he was in teaching us the fine details of the language, especially to Dallas. With Mr. Grant we learned that he really does not like sitting on cupcakes, however he does fancy the use of writing with microscopic pieces of chalk. We had Mrs. Cranick give us daily updates on her baby daughter, fitness talks, health precautions, and of course we can never forget her abundant usage of the word “so”. We had Miss Kotler share many humorous cartoons with us, although only about half of us were able to comprehend the humor.
In minutes we will be Saint Paul alums, and it will be up to us to bring all of the values that Saint Paul school has given us, and use them to create in ourselves our own personal identity and what it means to be a Saint Paul School graduate. These values will not just be used next year or just in high school, but rather Saint Paul has given us an eternal imprint into our life that will last forever in our hearts. Since we all will be going to an array of different high schools, as we depart from this school we will go and meet new people, teachers, challenges and any other possible thing we will encounter in our lifetime, we will be able to reflect back on our Saint Paul experience with reverence and look back in glee. Thank You!