36 1 ;. - Archbishop Moeller High School

Moeller CELEBRATES- ~ , ft i^IiW.*!^I HW^HsStefciLM. •*, ISPaul T. BunchValedictorianTimothy C. PaffSalutatorianJames M. FisherFather ChaminadeAwardPaul T. BunchMan of MoellerAwardPaul T. BunchDavid M. GreiderMemorial AwardRandall A.LinnemannGold Shield AwardGraduation Statistics199 GraduatesStudents receivingacademicscholarships: 40.3%Students receivingathletic scholarships:7.0%Total value ofscholarshipsreceived:$2,510,00038Walking in theland of giantsIn his graduation speech, Matthew Harrison COO) recallsthe days he walked among "giants"...I can still remember my first day at Moeller HighSchool. I was a scared little boy walking amongstgiants. I looked around the halls and saw men. I sawanarchy. It appeared asif no one was headedin any certain direction.Occasionally, Iwould get lost in thosevery halls that all lookedthe same to an untrainedeye. I consideredconsulting one ofthe giants to find myway, but decided towonder aimlessly thansubmit to the humiliationof admitting I waslost. I could not bringW I N D O W S S U M M E R 2 0 0 0myself to approach one of the giants, for I did notsee them as teenagers, but rather as the subject ofconversation on the news or in the CincinnatiEnquirer. Who was I to ask them to do me a favor?Why would they take the time to help out a scaredlittle hoy like me? After all. my picture of Moeller upto this time had been drawn by the reports I hadheard on the news or read in the paper. Now, hereI was, walking in the midst as if we were equals. Itwas hard to believe. In fact, I didn't believe it rightaway. I still felt inferior. This feeling made me evenmore skeptical than I already was about this supposed"Moeller Family," which I had heard so muchabout before attending the school.I was as confused as anybody about what to expectfrom a school that proclaimed itself a "family." Afterall, it's just a school, right? I couldn't understand howa school with nearly a 1,000 guys could developsuch a feeling of belonging, such camaraderie thatpeople would commonly refer to it as a "family." Ididn't believe that a bunch of teenagers would referto their friends as "family." I had come from a gradeschool with a graduating class of 28, and we hadgrown close over those years. Entering Moeller,I thought I would never reach that kind ofcloseness again.