All gathered here - to this fable you will listen now -

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away there lived a strange species of beings. Characterized by their awkward walk, long legs and arms, and great emotional mood swings, these creatures were known at that time as ninth graders. Often they would be seen carrying great sacks of books, crying about comments they had made to each other, or listening to strange music devoid of melody but strong on the beat. Their leader as our story begins was the bright, wise and beautiful, Princess Jeralyn.

They referred to their planet as "Our World." It was populated with all manner of these creatures with unique names such as Gidget, Colls, Yoni, Nesha and Jimbo. It came to pass that another group of very wise but very old beings as assembled from a nearby planet known as Facul-tee. Soon, the Facul-tee noticed that these young beings seemed to have more skills than just carrying bags of books. Some, it seemed, had a special talent with music. Corti, for example, could blow into a metal tube to make sweet sounds and JoJo could rub a bow on strings in such a way as to make the angels cry. Others such as Pelz and Mark could make beautiful marks on paper and canvas that would cause others to feel emotions. Still others named Kath and Lope-dog could utter pleasing sounds and move in such a way on stage as to cause people to feel emotion. Some could move with grace and speed. Many did wondrous things with spheres and strings. Vanessa, for example, could hit round balls very skillfully with a stringed racket. "L" could put balls through a stringed net better than anyone. Michelle could keep balls from hitting strings in a goal, thus preventing opponent's scores. Some put strings on the end of sticks and swung them in the air. Especially adept at this skill were Chief and Gar. And Danny, who worked without strings, could hit small white balls into tin cups from long distances away.

As time went on, they carried lighter sacks of books, cried less about what others said to them, but they still listened to strange music devoid of melody but strong on the beat.

The wise beings from Facul-tee decided to test these creatures, often two or three times a day, especially on Fridays. They gave them difficult problems, told them to write long essays, made them speak strange languages, and demanded that they comment about things known as DBQs. They had them work in labs conducting strange experiments with titles too long to utter in this fable. Madi, Sasj and the Gilja Monster won awards at this type of competition. The wise ones had them recite words that rhymed while drinking great quantities of coffee and looking at lava lamps. Alex and Dwayne excelled at this. The Facul-tee wise women and wise men were pleased that the beings performed so well. In fact, other beings across the galaxy also soon noticed how well the beings had done on these tests and tried to entice them to come to their planets known as Yale, Georgetown, Harvard and so on.

Other strange things happened. Some of the beings gathered together under the leadership of one of the wisest of the wise guys, known as "Doc," and began to teach younger beings how good it was to be tolerant, to love one another, and to appreciate the ways others think. Frankie and Mel and Magooga were the chief teachers of the young ones.

The Facul-tee looked and saw how the beings had grown and changed. They no longer saw beings with strange names but looked at them through the lens of a device known as "the possible future scope." They saw the beings with titles now, rather than nicknames. They saw Senator Giamo, President Bennett, Emperor Mandelker, Doctor Parekh, Professor Hong, News Anchor Melchione, and even Principal Kavakeb.

And so, it came to pass that the Facul-tee decided that all of the beings, now called seniors, were eligible to begin training to become Jedi knights, or "something like that." They instructed the Head of the Facul-tee to bring all of the seniors together to give them one last, but very important lesson. One amongst the beings, Joey, had always dressed in long robes throughout his years. While he did this to be different, the rest of the beings decided that they would all do this as well and all gathered together one warm summer night, dressed in long colored robes, in front of their elders, to hear the one final lesson from the Facul-tee.

They had come far from those awkward days of ninth graders. Soon they would leave this place with no book bags, with only one piece of paper in hand, with big smiles on their faces and would spend the night dancing to music devoid of melody but strong on the beat.

The Head rose and spoke thusly -

You have proven yourselves worthy in every test we have given to you. You have established a record of excellence in everything you have done. You have shown that you are not only smart, and good looking, but downright nice also. For these reasons, we have decided that the "force" is with you and that you are ready for the one final test. Do it or don't do it - there is no try!

It is the law of the universe that those that steal must do something to replace that which was stolen. With your kindness, with your laughter, and with your good nature, you have stolen our hearts, mine in particular. To replace that which you stole you must perform the hardest task of all. You must promise us here tonight, in a solemn oath, that you will perform one true act of courage sometime in your lives. Knowing that you have done that will replace the empty place in our hearts with pride and the knowledge that we once knew you. The act of courage should not be foolhardy but it must be a statement of a higher meaning. It must be, because of its nature, that which moves society to a higher level. We have looked in our "historical scopes" and see many examples in the past. We have seen a simple man in a placed called Beijing, China, who stood in the path of tank convoy simply because he believed in freedom. We have seen a woman refuse to surrender her seat on the bus because she knew she had the same dignity as every human being. We saw people speak out about injustice even when speaking in such a way was unpopular or even unhealthy. Your act of courage need not be dramatic and known by many, but it must be real. Courage is not contributing a can of soup to a food drive. Courage is working side by side to raise a home for a disadvantaged family. Courage is not contributing a dollar to buy a raffle ticket. Courage is helping a grown man learn to read so he can provide for his family. Courage is not contributing to the environmental effort by buying Ben and Jerry's ice cream or Paul Newman's tomato sauce. Courage is making a public statement that teaches others by example what is right. Risk and you will learn. Learn and you will change the world. Then, and only then it can really be "your world."

Go you must, but know this - you take part of us with you. Return you must to be all that you are meant to be. Courage - that is what you must find. Courage - that is what you must display. For you are special - you have our hearts with you.