By Mr. Harrison “Harry” Miller
I would first like to express how grateful I am to be in the position that God has placed me in. John 17:1 says, “Father, the hour is come; Glorify thy son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” In this spirit, I would like to give thanks to FCA. I have been supported, and my mind has been nourished through FCA and by the coaches, teachers, and fellow students who are so essential to its weekly discipline. Thank you for your support.
I would also like to thank the City Commissioners, Board of Education, and the Administration and Staff of Buford City Schools and Buford High School for their work throughout these four years.
And, very importantly, thank you to my mother, Kristina, my father, Sean, and my brother, Jack- not so much Jack, but definitely the other two for graciously putting up with my growing sarcasm and our ever growing food bill.
In looking back at these four years and talking with my fellow classmates, I have noticed a common theme of diverted expectations. I remember a stout, some might say chubby, some might say even worse, freshman entering with a million ambitions. I expected to brandish a handful of rings. Others I know expected perfect scores, countless victories, and success that seemed so obvious- a path that seemed so obvious.
However, that was not the case. It was a journey, filled with detours and characterized by change. Yet, now when I think about it, I realize that what we strive for is never really what we aim to receive. This year, we read “State of Wonder”, by Ann Patchett, and in the novel, she says, “Never be so focused on what you’re looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.”
I have lost in two state championships, yet in those moments, I have learned how to laugh, commiserate, and sacrifice with my friends, and for my friends. Some have been turned away from their dream schools, yet in the process have learned to discard disappointment and proudly display determination. We have all been forced to embrace change, and as a result, lead one another.
It was never about the grades in the classroom or what the points were between the yard lines; It was about what grew in our hearts and what flourished between one other. In an interval of unprecedented change, we all witnessed unparalleled leadership, servitude, and solidarity.
We all witnessed Derrian Brown overcome something that can not be properly conveyed in words. It was sudden. It was unexpected. But Derrian was not. He was the same Derrian that I saw fight and claw in every game, the same Derrian that inspires young men throughout this community. It was never the points, never the yards, but the discipline, the character, the tenacity that made Derrian the man that overcame – It was an embodiment of what this class had to experience: confusion, contention, change. To this class, it was never the classroom, but the lessons, the failures, the things we never expected that made these years what they were.
I realize how fruitful these years were, not in shiny metal on a shelf, but in shining characters that illuminated a building. So as we take these experiences with us into new rooms, new fields, and new hallways, I ask to remember one thing: Do not forsake the Present. I think about a quote from C.S. Lewis where he says, “Biological necessity makes it so that all passions point towards the Future already, so that thought about the Future inflames hope and fear… In a word, the Future is, of all things, the least like eternity… For the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.”
Perhaps one could say, “Carpe Diem.” However, I will not because it is so overused that it would cause some eye-rolling, and to those of us who had to read John Donne, it just doesn’t have quite the same meaning anymore.
But I will say this. Do not preoccupy yourself so much with what might happen, that you forget what is happening. Do not worry so much about the infinite possibility of tomorrow, that you miss the endless potential of today. The greatest of people are all around us, and the greatest of moments lie right in front of us to be captured in their truest colors and to grow even richer in our memories. Focus on- cherish- what you find because expectations are a fool’s guess towards desire while the Present contains everything we could ever hope for.
Thank you, Buford, for these years. More importantly, thank you, Buford, for these memories, these experiences, and for these people I never did expect, who are now friends I can never forget.
Thank you, and congratulations Buford Class of 2019.
