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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, June 9, 2003

Currun Singh graduated Saturday from Punahou School.
ISLAND VOICES
The duties of the graduate

By Currun Singh

Today, I enter an exciting new world. It's not the Great Barrier Reef of "Finding Nemo," nor is it the illusory "Matrix." It's different from the old New World, nothing like Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World."

I've learned a lot over the past 13 years. I discovered that Thomas Jefferson virtually plagiarized John Locke in his Declaration of Independence; I know that progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy is a debilitating disease of the central nervous system; Ralph Waldo Emerson taught me self-reliance; and I know that the integral of f '(x) dx from a to b is equal to f (b) minus f (a).

In the end, however, all that knowledge amounts to dates, facts and names.

The world my generation enters today is challenging. We have to fix your mistakes, just as you fixed your parents'.

We live in an age of immeasurable technological progress. Most of us don't know how our computers work — they could be magic, for all we know. The rate at which technology advances certainly seems like magic, and we'll witness exponential growth in our lifetimes in the fields of health and medicine.

To my classmates, both on Hawaiian and distant shores, I challenge you to be optimistic. Constantly we hear of the "starving children in Africa." Be the first to act on the rhetoric of the past. Without fail, our politicians make empty promises about campaign finance reform, fairness and truth. Be the first to improve the politics of the present. And our leaders have forgotten to protect our environment. Be the first to sustain beauty for the future.

And to everyone else, do not doubt us; you'd be up against too much. Our generation is not comprised of brain-dead slobs, but rather keen, curious and courageous young men and women who are interested in living and loving deeply.

Today, I enter an exciting new world. It's not the Great Barrier Reef of "Finding Nemo," nor is it the illusory "Matrix." It's different from the old New World, nothing like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and certainly not MTV's "Real World." Today, I am a graduate from high school. I've sure learned a lot over the past 13 years, but more important is how I will use my knowledge in the years to come. Stay tuned.