The graduation speaker was Jack O’Connell, the 20th state superintendent of California. The state superintendent is an eight-year elected position and having him speak at their graduation was a huge honor, explained many of the staff. Jack gave a brief speech, citing other terse graduation speeches as valid reason for his brevity. He talked about one speaker who stood on the stage and said, “We have given you a perfect world. Don’t mess it up,” and sat down. Albert Einstein told the Harvard class he was speaking to that he had nothing in particular that he wanted to say that day, and that he wished them the best. It was a good thing that Jack O’Connell did not decide to fluke out as early as the other speakers did, because I’m sure the graduating class would have liked some words to take with them. Jack talked about the importance of setting high goals and working as hard as you can for these goals. He reminded the class of the word commencement, which means a new beginning.

After Jack’s speech, Jennifer Ann Cook, a PDSD graduate in ‘89, told the kids that Fremont had given them the best. They had the best staff, teachers, education, and facilities they had taken advantage of over their years. She then talked about the bag of ingredients you needed for success. Among these ingredients you needed hard work and love. “Love yourselves,” said Cook, “and never settle for less.”

The Valedictorian was Erica Wilkins and the Salutatorian was Arthur Chan, both of whom plan on going to Gallaudet University in the fall. The graduation, compared to others that I have seen in my past, was the longest one. It lasted almost three full hours because instead of having separate awards programs like many schools traditionally do, they have their senior awards during the commencement ceremonies. I enjoyed watching the graduation and seeing the kids in the same shoes I was in just two years ago.

We then saw Kevin off with his friend to go home to Santa Rosa to take care of personal business, and we parked at our favorite Borders in Fremont once again to take advantage of the Wi-Fi hotspot. Fred Chin and his son Xavier joined us for the one hour drive to Santa Cruz where we are playing paintball tomorrow. Some people planned to camp out on the site and since paintball was scheduled to start at 8 a.m., we felt it best to go there tonight.

The drive to the campsite was rather uneventful until we reached the mountain in Santa Cruz where we were playing. The roads were narrow and the ascent was steep. Even though a sign said that all vehicles longer than 30 feet were strongly discouraged from making the drive up the hill, our 32-foot vehicle still made the trip. It was dark and Jed manned the wheel masterfully navigating the tight curves. We had to stop sometimes and I needed to get out and direct The Mary Augusta out of some very tight spots. It was even worse when we entered the paintball grounds and the asphalt turned into dirt. We parked the RV on the flattest ground we could find, and what felt like a 40-degree angle. We chatted with the eight others who were camping out that night around a fire before calling it a night. During the entire night, because I gave my bed to Fred and Xavier, I kept rolling into Branic because of how steep we were parked. I don’t see how Branic didn’t fall out of the bed.