Class of 2012 Salutatorian Brendan Clifford's Graduation Speech

As I walked into this school, Hull High School, HHS, as a freshman, I’ll admit I was scared. I was frightened for what was to become of me during the fours years I would spend in this building; a place I would eventually consider my second home. I came out of the glistening yellow bus under the heat of an early September day in 2008 as a lost soul. Yet, I began to realize that I was not the only one. We were all starting fresh and new and had very little idea of what to expect in this next chapter of our lives. Only the arches leading into the foyer of the building were there to guide us physically through these momentous moments. What we least expected in the beginning of this process was the immeasurable and innumerable amount of memories we would make as a class but even more significantly as one cohesive family; going through the ups and downs of growing-up together.

            Freshman and Sophomore Years: We zipped through the academic wing, rushing from class to class like it was nobody’s business with stacks of books and papers in our hands. Or at least I did. I never understood why people yelled “Run Forest Run” at me but looking back I was such a little frosh. We listened to the wild and wacky stories, and life lessons of Mr. Menon. We saw Ms. Lanney jump for joy and talk in her high voice everyday in class. To this day I don’t know why. Maybe it was her passion for English but really who has a passion for that, just sayin’. Let’s see there was Mr. Fuller and his fortune cookies and so many life lessons learned. There was Ms. Thomson’s calm and mother-like demeanor despite the time Doos got himself to fit and hid in the TV cabinet, jumping out to give Ms. Thompson a good surprise and receiving a nice pink write up sheet as a result. There was Mr. Trombly never quite being able to retrieve the markers from the top of the whiteboard and still unable today I might add. These instances, while some of the most notable, do not even begin to touch the surface of all the unforgettable elements of our underclassmen years.

            Junior and Senior Years:  As we became more mature and gained more freedom, we started to take over the halls and corridors of Hull High School. We glided over the smooth tiles, piercing our eyes through the windows surrounding the courtyard with grade-A-swag(ger). We slid, or in some cases, propelled ourselves down the dull blue stairwell just for the heck of it. We camped out at the Library Media Center avoiding our classes like the plague. And Ms. Grosso, you may have tried to stop us, but we invaded your desk and made it our fortress; sheltering ourselves from the evils of VHS. On the other hand, we did realize the sheer importance of our studies during these last two years. We struggled and sacrificed healthy sleeping habits to learn the material for our college-level classes. As a result, we excelled and earned this school a prestigious place in the AP honor roll. We learned from Hull High that hard work really does pay off, simply said, whether it is academics or athletics: with most notably the state championship win from our girls basketball team last year.

            There are just too many aspects of Hull High which stick in my mind that I could not even mention all of them in one single day. What we must do now, even though it may be difficult and sometimes painful, is take our experiences, lessons, and memories over the past four profound years and put them to memory. We must store them in the scrapbook of our minds and close it shut. We can never forget but we cannot harp on the past and remain stationary because this is just the opening of the next chapters of our lives. When we walk out of the doors of this building, when we fly out its nest, I know that we are not being pushed but we are driven to soar to the highest lengths to succeed in our lives. And as we get ready to graduate today, I want us all to look in the corner of our eyes or perhaps right above us; that is the great city Boston just a few miles across the water and overhead are an endless stream of flights flying out of Logan. Because, even though some of us are not exactly studying or working in the city, it as well as those planes above us represent the exceptionally far places to which we will go as adults and alums of Hull High School. We are ALL awesome and downright amazing. Nobody can tell us otherwise because there is nothing we cannot accomplish on our own. I love all of you and I will never forget what we had as the CLASS OF 2012.