My high school has, recently, published a number of photos of its newly admitted class of 2028 and I’ve enjoyed seeing these pictures. It’s been 51 years since I first entered Xavier. I see myself in these newly admitted ‘brothers’. Proud, happy, a bit scared; all on display. These young men have no way of knowing what their future will be, just as I didn’t know when I first stepped into Xavier. They have no way of knowing that they are beginning on their search of finding Heaven. What do I mean? I guess what I’m saying is that I believe in Heaven on Earth, and I believe it’s found anywhere you seek it. I first found it with many of my friendships that began with fellow Xavier High School classmates that have now stood the test of time. There’s not a lot you can hide from someone who knows you since you’re 13 years old! Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, lemme tell you. Those are big years. Everybody always thinks of it as a time of adolescence—just getting through to the real part of your life—but it’s more than that. Sometimes your whole life happens in those years, and the rest of your life it’s just the same story playing out with different characters. I could die tomorrow and have lived the main ups and downs of life experienced with those guys. Pain. Loss. Love. Gratitude. And what we all so fondly refer to as wisdom. That’s Heaven. I found Heaven with some of the Jesuit teachers I had. The teachers of my life saved my life and sent me out prepared for whatever life I was meant to lead. Like everyone else, I had some bad ones and mediocre ones, but I never had one that I thought was holding me back because of idleness or thoughtlessness. They spent their lives with the likes of me. They lit a path for me and one that I followed with joy.
So, lads enjoy your own search, recognize that you will never regret going to Xavier and keep marching Class of 2028!
The Valley Viewpoint 