First Assembly 0203

Crescent School

Opening Assembly

September 2002

Make this a better year than last year.

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Good morning.

I hope you have had a glorious summer. The weather was truly remarkable. But like most great things, something else has come our way to alter our perspective somewhat. School has arrived, and with it, new glories to achieve, and new horizons to explore.

I thought of many things to say to you today, but I decided on one simple but important message. Make this a better year than last year. Quite honestly, I don’t know how you’re going to achieve that goal. Each one of you is different and special. Perhaps you will achieve that goal through athletic achievement; perhaps by achieving and maintaining an average superior to last year. Perhaps you might score a part in our school play, Bye, Bye Birdie. Perhaps it might be by serving your community longer – or in some greater and meaningful way. Perhaps it might be through exerting positive leadership at Crescent School or by exhibiting greater self-reliance.

It may be in any one these ways I’ve mentioned, or a combination of those factors, but, in a phrase, I want you to make this year better than the year before. I would love to meet with you on Prize Day, 2003, and ask you if you achieved your goal. Was this year a better year for you and your school? I want each of you to shake my hand and say, emphatically, “Yes, sir, this was an outstanding year, better than the year before.”

So let each one of us here, today, commit to making this the best year in Crescent’s history, a year in which we win more championships, personally achieve greater academic heights, challenge ourselves artistically, and commit ourselves to serving our local and global community with our strong hearts and minds. Let’s make a positive difference to our school lives, our personal lives, and the lives of others in this world. In a phrase, let us make this year better than the year before – maybe even the best Crescent has ever seen.

Each of you can make it happen. You have the talent and the potential.

I won’t finish by saying, have a great year. I will say, however, have a greater year.

Have a greater year, everyone.