Delivered by Headmaster Dr. Darren Pascavage - August 10, 2011

Convocation is an English noun which is derived from the from the Latin words voca, meaning voice, and con, meaning together.  To convoke (the seldom used verb form of the word convocation) means to call together.  This is different from provoke, which means to incite, or evoke, which means to suggest, or invoke, which means to appeal, even though all four words share the same Latin root, voca, and each involves calling or speaking - albeit for different purposes.  A convocation is a calling together, and that is what we are doing on this first day of the 2011-2012 school year - calling together all students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, trustees, and friends of Valwood School in celebration. Indeed, in that spirit, I have assembled and brought to convocation today one copy of the yearbook from every year that Valwood has been in existence, so that the Valwood's past could symbolically answer the call and be represented as we open our new school year.

Now, if you recall the month of May, you may remember how you celebrated the end of the last school year.   Maybe you had a party with your class, perhaps someone brought in cupcakes or Kool Ade, and it was a good time.  But, that must mean that we will celebrate the end of this school year next May, so if the end of the year is something to celebrate, why do we also celebrate the beginning of the school year?  Here is the reason: we celebrate at the end of the school year for what we did achieve, but we celebrate the start of the school year for what we can achieve.  The year that lies before each and every one of us is a blank slate, a tabula rasa in Latin, and that is indeed something to celebrate.  For those of you who had a good year last year, you are now faced with the task of repeating that success from scratch: nothing that you did last year counts for much this year - although I suspect that the things that you learned, the good habits that you developed, the friends that you made, and the good reputation you established for yourself may, in fact, help you a bit - but, nonetheless, the gradebook is clean.  For those of you who did not do well last year, today is indeed a cause to celebrate, because nothing that you did last year counts today - although I suspect that things which you failed to learn, the good habits that you did not develop, the friendships that you failed to cultivate, and the lackluster reputation that you established may, in fact, stand between you and success more that you or I might like to admit - but, nonetheless the gradebook is clean for you as well.

Indeed, the beginning of a new school year is a glorious gift that each of us gets to open again and again before we graduate and move on to college and the rest of our lives - 12 times for most of us, a few less for some and, perhaps, a few more for others.  So here is my challenge to you today: the calendar and the nature of the school year, itself, has given you as fresh a start as you can possibly hope for in this world: make the most of it!  Some of you who were wildly successful last year will somehow manage to be even more wildly successful this year, and in so doing will make all of us proud at what your success hopefully says about us (by association) and about Valwood School.  Some of you who did "okay" last year will seize the opportunity for a fresh start with enthusiasm and make positive changes, so much so that teachers, and parents, and classmates will marvel at how different you seem this year, at how much you have evidently "grown up" over the summer and figured out what it takes to do well.  While I wish that these two categories would capture all of you, alas, I know that they will not: despite my impassioned plea this morning, a few of you will fail to act on the opportunity that the first day of school represents, and perhaps repeat the same mistakes that you made last year, or perhaps discover a few new mistakes which you were not previously aware could be made.  If that happens, I promise that I will do my best, and am sure that your teachers, your friends, and your family, and your coaches, will also promise to do their very best, to encourage you, support you, and gently urge you in the right direction.  And, God willing, that encouragement and support and urging will result in both you and I being right here again next year (not the Seniors, of course; we hope that they will be elsewhere at this time next year) ready to give it yet another try, with yet another opportunity for yet another fresh start, energized by the promise of successes yet to come.