­­Mayor Daniel J. Reiman’s keynote speech
to the Carteret High School graduating class of 2011

Good evening – Class of 2011

DR. Repollet thank you for your invitation to join with you and the family and friends of the class of 2011 on this memorable occasion. Congratulations to you, the latest class from Carteret High School to proceed on towards adulthood. And a special congratulations to all of your parents and guardians here today who must feel a sense of pride for having shepherded you to this point in your lives so far.

What an incredible age this is, when one can pose a question, and then within seconds find the answer complete with pictures and references on small handheld devices, through search engines with names like “Google,” “Yahoo,” and “Bing.”

Our global community has certainly embraced information technology and with good reason; it is within our nature to seek knowledge, to grow, and to find the answers to questions so that we may move on to the next ones and the next challenges.

You are fortunate to have been educated during this great period, of modernization and technological advancement, when no answer is obscured or inaccessible, and when your own answers and thoughts or ideas may be shared virtually instantaneously with your friends and the rest of the world. It is different from the time, not a few short years ago, when I received my own diploma, before today’s improvements of pages being turned with a scroll wheel, and with textbooks that are  kept on a keychain size hard drives, and before the world could be explored on a touch screen.

I’m sure that, if anything hasn’t changed, it is that this has remained a period of discovery for young adults and students of education or academic enrichment. And that this is still the time when ambitions are born – when something, for whatever reason, catches your attention, in a book, in a class, on the web –takes a firm hold of you, to remain with you for as long as you allow it.

And If our youth is the time when ambitions are born, then adulthood must be the time when these ambitions are seized upon. In the years to come, be loyal to your ambitions. Be aggressive. Be energetic. Stay on the offensive. And whatever you do, seize the opportunities that are afforded you and capitalize on them. Do not squander your education, your experiences, the relationships you will build as time goes on, nor any moment of precious time that you can use to improve yourself. Use every resource within your means to keep that ambition of yours secure, to nurture it, and to reward yourself with the most unique and powerful kind of pride that will come from defining and claiming your own brand of success.

This is the most competitive society in which we live, in one of the most difficult times in American history. America has evolved out of competition, and it is competition that has kept us at the forefront of world economics, technology, medicine, and of the arts. Today represents the crossroads of many aspects of your lives, more practically, from High School to vocation or higher education, and from childhood to adulthood. Over the next few years, our society will ask you to become responsible for yourself. To sever the ties of dependence from your home and childhood. To become a valuable part of our workforce and community. To become a conscientious, thinking voter. To become an individual. Is it ok to be frightened? Yes of course. Should you be excited? Absolutely.

Throughout your lives, you may be plagued by doubts and a sense of insecurity . It is in our nature, and can be as inescapable as our shadow. Pledge yourselves to always conquer self defeat. To remain stronger, and to give yourself – and those important to you – the encouragement we all need to secure our own American dreams. As your lives unfold, it will present you with an enormous range of what may be very difficult, and often very unique challenges. Do not view these as obstacles. These challenges are messages – instructions that, when confronted, will make it startlingly clear what it is you need to do. If during the grand chronology of your experiences you come to a wall, do not turn around. You have been given a directive to build a ladder to go over it.

Do not allow yourself to get older, and look back with regret, and then say to yourself, “I could have done that. I wish that were me.” The people who succeed in that area will not have been better than you, not smarter than you, nor luckier than you. These are simply people who at one point or another said to themselves, “I can and I will do this.”

So this is now your task –set your goals, commit yourself to them, and proceed to reach them. Do not settle for mediocrity.

You have every reason to celebrate, but do not become complacent. The finish line you have crossed today is the starting line to another race.

Thank you, congratulations, and may God bless you.