Pacifica Stories

History and Theology teacher Scott Comer shares his parting words to the Class of 2024 leading up to graduation. 

I love having the first word. One of my favorite things to do as a teacher is to set the tone. It’s a reason I love working with ninth graders; they don’t know what high school is like, and having the first words gives me a chance to both paint a picture of their future and develop a culture that will propel them there. One thousand three hundred ninety-two days ago, I had some of the first words spoken to you as high school students. On August 13th, 2020, we had our freshmen get-together a few days before school started. In these few minutes, I want to remind you of three things I said that day and show you how they were not just words for high school but for your whole life.

Four years ago, I told you that you had eight semesters until graduation. Over that time, some of you tried to challenge that, but here we all are. With that, I asked you to imagine walking across the stage at your graduation ceremony. I asked you to answer the question, “Who did you want to be?” and “What did you want to have done or accomplished?” That day, I set an end before you. Now, if you remember your ninth-grade logic, you will know that the word “end” can be used analogously. It can have two related but different meanings. The end of your class is when the bell rings, but the end, or purpose, of a class, is to know the content and to have developed the skills to clearly and professionally express your knowledge and then to connect those skills and knowledge to the other things you are learning. One is the termination of a thing, and the other is its culmination. The end of most high schools is merely graduation, but the end of Pacifica Christian High School is thinking and living well. You have been equipped for this and can walk confidently into the next phase of your life. We are privileged to watch you take those first steps on Friday.

I also told you that I cannot give you an education. No one can. Education cannot be inherited, bestowed, or injected. It must be earned. It must be sought and fought for, and you have done this, but you will need to do it again. This is a truism not only for education but for anything of value. No one can present you with a great marriage or a strong family. No one can give you a life-long friendship, a legacy, or a life lived in submission to Christ. You must make choices, difficult choices. And then work and fail, and work and be humble, and then work some more. We live in a society that preaches excellence without effort, titles without trials, and prizes without perseverance, but you know better. You’ve learned differently. You know that a life well lived, a life of purpose, peace, joy, and meaning, is not written without error, erasing, or emendation. There are no shortcuts. As you grow older, people will continue to judge you by a variety of standards. Most are shallow or unattainable versions of some sort of success. Success that is always temporary. Remember, class of 2024, while the world whispers that you must sacrifice everything, including your soul, for this spurious success, your Heavenly Father calls you not to a fleeting fortune but to faithfulness; he not only calls you to faithfulness but gives you His strength to be faithful. As you leave Pacifica, lean on that strength and be faithful.

Finally, I said that you would probably not remember any particular lesson that I taught you, but you would remember the time you invested in and wasted with others—the time that you spent in community. Think about the relationships you’ve made over the last four years. Who in this room has blessed you? Who in this room has helped bear your burdens? Who in this room had called you out when you messed up—not because they wanted to be right, but because they wanted you to get right? Thank them. Remember them.  Do not let the false barrier of distance come between you in the next few years. Think now about your parents, your brothers and sisters, other family members, teachers, counselors, coaches, and administrators who have supported you, encouraged you, prayed for you, and loved you. They loved you not for what they could get from you but for the fact that you are theirs. And then know that there is another who has loved you, who pursues you and blesses more than all of them together, and that God, your creator and sustainer, says that he will never leave you or forsake you.

As you go forward to whatever God places before you, look to the end. In your end is your beginning. The morbid Mondays and weary Wednesdays are animated by the anticipation of both the termination and culmination of each phase of your life. Know that the trials of the trying Tuesdays and the frantic Fridays are not keeping you from life; they are life. To quote a friend of mine, “Make good choices,” and rely on the strength that God gives you to be faithful. And cherish the people in your life. Find the most important people and waste tons of time with them. Build relationships. Love well and wisely. Give all that you know of yourself to all that you know of God, and go boldly into your future. Class of 2024, congratulations, and we believe in you.