Good Evening Class of 2014, School Board Members, Parents, Fellow Educators, Alumni, Family, and Friends. It is a pleasure to be part of this very special graduation ceremony honoring the students of Coronado High School and the people who have helped make this day possible. 

Tonight we celebrate the 99th graduating class at CHS.  In this our 100th anniversary as a unified district, we remember those leaders who chose bravely to include a high school in their public education plans.

Martin Luther King Junior once said, "In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time."

Procrastination can also be the thief of your next career, which is either a job or working towards a college degree.  All that you have accomplished up to this point is simply preparation.  But sometimes preparation can lead to apathy for taking on the actual work.  So tonight I am telling you "Don't Prepare. Just Begin."

Is it just me or do you feel that we spend too much time planning for life? For instance, in education we are really big on making strategic plans.  We set up planning committees to make decisions and we plan and we plan, but it feels like we never really begin. Sometimes I think that we should scrap the time we spend planning and just start doing. Really, would we be any worse off?  Besides, starting is so much more fun than preparing and a little fun in the mix of life goes a long way.  As Mr. Heinecke might say "It is better to have written a lousy song than to have composed no song at all."

But I want you to beware that you must overcome the resistance that you are sure to face when you begin this important work to take yourself too seriously.  So my second piece of advice to you is to simply "stay stupid and follow your unconventional crazy heart."  In other words, keep dreaming the impossible, be inventive, innovative, and entrepreneurial.  This is so difficult for those of us who have spent so many years in public education because everything we do just drips of sameness, uniformity, and monotony. 

But despite this stifling experience, where there is passion there is hope.  If you are doing instead of planning and acting on unique ideas instead of uniformity, you will become a work-in-progress that will generate its own energy field.  Move beyond your inherent skepticism and doubt and begin feeling that tailwind on your bow.  

Finally, don't quit questioning.  Don't be afraid of what might happen if you do something unique. Be courageous, be a change agent, be a reformer. However, if you are a reformer you will need to fail every once in a while.  Crashing means you have failed. Crashing means you gave it everything you had and yet you came up short. But listen closely to this final piece of advice: Having a crash does not mean we are losers.  A crash means we are on the threshold of something new.  We will survive and we will be stronger for it.  As Alfred said to Bruce at the lowest point in Bruce's life: "We fall so that we can learn to pick ourselves up...."

On behalf of the Coronado Unified School District Governing Board, I hope that what you have learned in our Coronado Schools will make it possible for all of you to Live Your Life So You Will Have No Regrets.

I stand here tonight with no regrets and I wish you the same. 

Live well Class of 2014! We are very proud of you!

You can find the entire Commencement at www.CoronadoTV.me