Alumni Graduation Speakers 2024

Oz Caiti-Nardone ’16, Head of School Gretchen Forsyth, and Nora Sullivan Horner ’16

Alumni speakers are a treasured and impactful annual tradition at GUS graduation. Alumni speakers are always selected from the class that was graduating themselves as eighth graders when the current eighth grade class was in Kindergarten. They return as recent college graduates to speak to share words of wisdom and advice with the graduating class. This year’s alumni speakers were Oz Caiti-Nardone ’16, who will graduate from Northeastern University next spring, where he is majoring in psychology, and Nora Sullivan Horner ’16, who recently graduated cum laude from Bowdoin College with a major in government and legal studies and a concentration in international relations.

Oz Caiti-Nardone ’16

“Today, we celebrate not only the end of a chapter but the beginning of a new adventure. As you stand on the threshold of the future, carry with you the lessons learned, the friendships forged, and the dreams yet to be realized.

Remember the challenges you’ve overcome, the late nights of studying, and the moments of triumph. They have all shaped you into the individuals you are today.”

Okay so that was the response ChatGPT gave me this morning when I asked for a graduation speech. While I’m sure everyone is very tired of hearing about AI, it will be a part of our lives, even if it’s just in the background, or used as an introduction.

I asked several friends from my Graduating Glen Urquhart class what I should talk about. As you can imagine, they were useless. And here we are.

I’d like to share a few pieces of advice that I’ve learned since I’ve left this campus.

Graduations are confusing. They’re composed of so many hopes and emotions. At the forefront is uncertainty. Uncertainty is something that should be embraced. It is something that is uniquely human, and should be valued as so. A pre planned life may seem attractive, but there is no place for improvement, for development, or for perspective. These things are experienced when uncertainty is present. When you have a situation to be resilient.

My brother and I both attended GUS. Our graduations were fairly similar. That being said, we each had different experiences sitting in those chairs. He graduated knowing what he wanted to pursue, I graduated without any concept of my future. Being in either of these positions is great.

Of the members of this graduating class, I assume some of you know what you want to do as you get older. Some may have a few different ideas, and most of you have no idea at all. Although it may be daunting, having no plans, or not being sure of your purpose leads to curiosity. That curiosity will enable you to explore, and through that exploration you will be exposed to so many new experiences that will eventually make up your life.

New experiences are exciting, even if they are scary. No matter what, they are memorable. I remember my first time playing basketball, as well as my first time having an oyster. My reaction to these two things were very different.

Be open to your changing opinions. This is not disloyal to your previous self, it is evolution. So many previous opinions and perspectives that I believed were set in stone have changed. This is a side effect of your developing brain and personality. This should excite you, and motivate you to dive deeper.

I thought my white shirt project was good. My opinion on that has changed.

Think about your future but do not overplan for it. Enjoy where you are and the things you are currently doing. Having future plans is smart, but obsession over getting to future events will distract from your current life. Allow yourself to experience what's happening around you. Be smart, but try to say yes more. Value the time with the people in your lives. They are also confused, or have been previously in their life. That's what growing up is. Through doing this, your relationships will become stronger, and your experiences more memorable.

I remember all the games of football during recess. We had gotten pretty good over the years. Maybe if the patriots start playing like we did, we’ll have a chance this season.

You will run into obstacles, like the New York Jets. You will want to quit, but this mindset is temporary. Allow yourself to rest and reset before trying again. Taking time to analyze a problem is very different from giving up on one. You will come back to it, and you will get past it.

I’m not going to tell you that you should get comfortable being uncomfortable. That implies that being uncomfortable is a permanent state. Think of it as a stomach ache. It does hurt for now and you may need help getting through it. But It will pass. Making it another new experience that you are comfortable in.

While this campus has changed since my last time here, the environment and passion of the staff and teachers has not. Believe them when they say they care. They have equipped each of you with the tools you will need to discover who you’re meant to be.

I could stand up here and tell you all the different people in this room that have impacted me, but I know the graduates are itching to be done. After this graduation, the dynamic of teacher and student will be broken. Try to learn more about these mentors on a personal level. It will mean just as much to them as it will to you.

Lastly, I’m only now learning this, and it may be hard to hear, but EVERYTHING YOUR PARENTS HAVE TOLD YOU ABOUT GROWING UP IS TRUE. I’m turning 22 shortly and can already see these truths. Time will move too fast. Savor every second, and be proud of how far you’ve come and how far you will go. It is important to take risks and fail. There is no better way to learn.

Listen to your parents. Take that coat, it’s supposed to be cold later.

And most of all, those in your life, family and friends do truly love and support you.

So, Congratulations to the class of 2024, and be open to change

Thank you.

Nora Sullivan Horner ’16

Thank you to Ms. Forsyth for inviting me, to the faculty and staff for making GUS what it is, and to the graduates and their friends and families for listening.

I’ve been invited to share advice with you all, but in considering what I might say, I realized that whatever wisdom I’ve gained over these eight years, it is those eight years. What I mean is: I cannot condense what I have learned and I cannot universalize it. The path before you is your own, as are the lessons you will learn. Time is the best teacher if you remain an attentive student, and the years ahead of you will teach you much. So in these precious minutes, I hope to give you all one perspective on how to learn from time. That is, how to be attentive and how to be intentional.

After graduating 8th grade, I viewed high school as a fresh start. It was separate, different from the blur of school years that preceded it. It shimmered with new potential because I felt I had more control than ever before over how my life would look, and this turned out to be true. I was so excited. I was also nervous, but I believed with enough preparation, I could make my high school experience what I wanted it to be–not completely, but significantly. I could shape it, not just accept it.

But I also sensed that I would be profoundly shaped too. I had the feeling that the next four years of my life would be especially formative, that they’d be important in a way I hadn’t yet encountered and couldn’t fully understand until looking back on them. I believed I would change so fundamentally yet so gradually that unless I recorded my experiences day by day, I wouldn’t notice. I would lose touch with the person sitting where you are today. So not for any class, I started the most important notebook of my life. It began as a few sheets of loose-leaf, wide-ruled paper. At the top of each page I would write the date, sometimes every day and sometimes after many weeks had passed, and below it whatever I wanted.

I started a journal.

I began it as a record for my future self but I’ve been surprised by how rarely I read my entries. Instead of being a tool for preserving memories, I’ve found it can help you make sense of the past and present, to make plans or just dream freely about the future. Writing in a stream-of-consciousness way helps you pay attention: whatever comes into your mind goes onto the paper, exactly as it is. What fills the page is the stuff of your life: stress about an upcoming due date, reflections on a fun day spent with a friend, grief over familial issues, excitement over getting a good grade or sharing a victory with your team, anxiety over an unresolved conflict. There is space for sweetness and sadness, wonder and worry, the everyday and the extraordinary. And for the wider world: you can exist safely in your journal, but I challenge you to engage with what is beyond yourself. What’s happening in the world? What’s happening in your local community? What did you learn in or out of class? What has surprised you, saddened you, uplifted you, angered you, inspired you? Writing it out helps you act intentionally because you gain clarity over how things are and how you see them, which can sometimes differ. You can discover and express how you honestly feel about things, which is the first step to changing them. You can envision more clearly how you want things to be–yourself, your goals, your relationships, your world–and how you can make that happen or how you can be at peace with the way things are.

You all are beginning new chapters in your lives in which you will undergo great but gradual transformation. You will experience things you never have before and they will change who you are and what you will go on to do. I encourage you to take time regularly to immerse yourself in the present, to reflect on it, on the past and on the future. To take time to enjoy or to mourn or to troubleshoot, and to go forward with these reflections in mind. Doing so will enable you to get to know yourself better, to discover your goals and values, especially as they increasingly compete with outside influences and events.

If you do not start a journal, now or ever, that’s fine. You don’t have to and you can always change your mind. But there are other ways to pay attention to the present and carry it with you into the future. I recently graduated from Bowdoin College–go U Bears–and when I called my mom to tell her I’d submitted my last paper, she had many things to say and one thing to suggest. After her heartfelt congratulations she told me, “right now, before you do anything else, go to your favorite spot on campus, sit there for fifteen minutes, and take it all in.” I ask you to do the same today. Whether you remember or record this moment exactly as it unfolds is not the point. It is that you more fully participate in these moments as they unfold. Writing is just one way to do so, but there are others.

For example: I invite everyone to take a deep breath with me. ... And to feel proud of what you have done and who you are becoming. Be excited about all that is ahead and, please, act with care and purpose. Thank you for listening, thank yourself for getting here and thank everyone in your life who’s helped you along your way.