Paul Shuler ’15 shares his notes for the speech he delivered at the Delbarton Experience Dinner. 

• This is really hard.
  • How do I walk around this beautiful campus knowing that my days as a student are over?
  • How do I say goodbye to 600 of my closest friends and brothers in the world?
  • How do I give a speech that captures my experience about the place I’ve called home for the past 6 years in only 5 minutes?
    • There’s too much I love about this school to fit into one speech. I can only briefly touch on the fact that I wrote, directed, and won an award for a 20-minute film I made as my final project in Mr. Carr’s film class. Or that, in the summer between my junior and senior years, I stayed at the Sant’Anselmo Monastery on the Aventine Hill in Rome for two weeks taking Italian language classes with two of my Delbarton brothers, Mark O’Meara and Nick Anselmi.

• As an only child, coming to this school, I was blindsided by the concept of brotherhood. How can you have 600 classmates who look out for you like brothers? What does that even mean?
  • I learned the meaning of Delbarton brotherhood on my fifth day of school as a seventh grader. Over the summer, the school had completed the construction of the new athletic fields, so during lunch that day, the entire student body took a walk, dubbed the Big Hike, to view our new state of the art complexes. The Hike concluded at the football field where we were given different colored shirts for each grade level (seventh graders wore purple). Then, with a crane-hoisted camera, we got ready to take a picture spelling out the word WAVE with our bodies. As we tightly packed ourselves into position, I jostled to get to the edge, knowing that if I stayed in the middle of a letter surrounded by upperclassmen, I had no chance of being seen. Then I heard the booming voice of Joe Petrucci, my senior dean, the Harvard bound captain of Delbarton’s football and lacrosse teams, calling me over. “Hey Paul! Come stand right here! At the tip of the V.” I walked over and he placed me in front of himself, putting his hands on my shoulders. Now, whenever I see that picture on Delbarton’s homepage, I can point myself out. That was the moment that I truly felt accepted. That was when I knew that I belonged here, at Delbarton.

• I know your sons aren’t here, but if I could give them one piece of advice it would be this: don’t settle–this school has too much to offer you to waste your time doing something that doesn’t satisfy you.
  • I’ll use an example from my own life.
    • I love baseball. I’ve played since I was four years old. Problem was, I was never very good. I was a fourth outfielder, backup catcher, and a relief pitcher. So, needless to say, I spent more time on the bench than on the field.
    • This past winter, I faced a dilemma. Should I go out for baseball? I would be on varsity–whether I got much playing time was a different story. Should I go out for spring track? I like running, but after doing both cross country and winter track, I was ready for a change. I wanted something new.
    • Well what about One Acts? I’d never acted before but I had a lot of friends in theater. I knew it was now or never. I did not want to leave Delbarton thinking “what if?”.
    • I decided to write a play with two of my friends from Villa Walsh, which was accepted for the Festival. After casting and directing the play by ourselves, we presented it and received thunderous applause.

• Reflecting on my experience at Delbarton, I know that the friendships I’ve made on my cross-country and baseball teams, in band, in theater, and in my deanery will last me a lifetime.
• To the alums, welcome back. I look forward to one day standing in your shoes and coming back to reunite with old friends at this beautiful place.
• To my teachers and to the monks of Saint Mary’s Abbey, thank you. You’ve been excellent role models, motivators, and, most importantly, friends.
• To my classmates, we’ve done it. I couldn’t have imagined spending these past years with a better group of guys.
• To the parents of new freshman and seventh graders, go home and give your kids a hug. Tell them how proud of them you are. But also tell them that they’ve just been given the biggest opportunity of their entire life, and it’s up to them to make the most of it. Because even though four or six years seems like a long time, they go by really fast.
• Finally, to my parents, I know it hasn’t always been easy. I know you’ve sacrificed a lot to send me here. I am forever grateful for everything you’ve done for me. Thank you.