The Graduate

As Odyssey High prepares for its fiftieth-anniversary graduation, Mrs. Hartl gives Connie astonishing news. Connie has completed all her requirements and has been chosen as class valedictorian. She races to Whit’s End, where Whit celebrates her achievement and reminds her how much work she has done. Connie credits the years of tutoring she has received from Whit and Eugene as well.

Eugene and Katrina congratulate Connie, though Eugene behaves unusually stiffly. Connie learns that Jason, Jerry, Whit, and Katrina have all been valedictorians. She assumes Eugene has been one too, but he grows uncomfortable and withdraws from the conversation. Connie’s immediate concern is her ceremonial role. The valedictorian traditionally opens graduation with a prayer, and because she has little experience praying in public, she asks Whit to help her write it.

Principal McFadden and Mrs. Hartl both admire Connie’s completed prayer, but the principal worries that its repeated references to Jesus may offend non-Christian students or guests. He proposes showing it to the senior class and allowing objections. He assures Connie that Odyssey High has included a prayer at every graduation for forty-nine years and that he intends to preserve the tradition.

Meanwhile, Eugene’s strange behavior becomes impossible to ignore. He tells Cody that he is poor at mathematics and sends him to Connie for help. Katrina corners Eugene in the train room and learns that he feels inferior because everyone else at Whit’s End belongs to the imaginary club of valedictorians. Though he began high school at nine and graduated at twelve with perfect grades, attendance, and conduct, he tied with an older student named Larry Kent. Their records remained identical all the way back through elementary school, so the faculty decided that the senior class should vote between them.

Larry was brilliant as well as popular: a football captain, actor, and homecoming king. Eugene had endured years of teasing as a child among teenagers and could not bear the possibility of another public humiliation. Certain Larry would win, he withdrew before the vote, completed school at home, and skipped graduation entirely. He tells Katrina the disappointment belongs to the past, but she sees that it still hurts.

A week after the class reviews Connie’s prayer, Principal McFadden reports that some people have objected specifically to the name of Jesus. He gives her a committee-written substitute addressed only to a vague eternal being. The school has used this carefully worded prayer in previous years to avoid complaints. Connie sees it as a compromise that fails to express what she believes.

McFadden warns that using her own prayer may provoke a lawsuit and threaten prayers at future graduations. He also says he will stop her in the middle if she disobeys, embarrassing everyone and disappointing him personally. Mrs. Hartl later tells Connie that several Christian faculty members dislike the school’s repeated surrender on this issue. They consider it persecution and will support Connie if she chooses to give her original prayer, though Mrs. Hartl stops short of advising her what to do.

Connie brings both choices to Whit. The official prayer seems empty to her, but defying the administration may create consequences for others. Whit does not choose for her. He believes neither available course is automatically sinful, making the decision a matter of conscience. Connie must pray for wisdom and act according to what she sincerely believes is right. Whit cannot remove the difficulty, but he tells her how proud he is of the thoughtful young woman she has become.

Katrina quietly arranges healing for Eugene’s old wound by inviting Larry Kent to Odyssey. Larry, now a high-school counselor, apologizes for the cruelty Eugene endured. He reveals that the class held its vote even after Eugene withdrew. Larry won, but Eugene received forty-five percent - far more support than he ever imagined. More importantly, Eugene’s extraordinary knowledge had challenged Larry and the rest of the class to work harder. Their class earned the highest test scores in the school’s history, nearly everyone attended college, and Eugene had helped make learning admirable.

Larry presents Eugene with an official valedictory certificate bearing his name, signed by the school’s current principal and added to his permanent record. He regards the honor as belonging to Eugene as much as to himself. For the first time, Eugene understands that his younger self was not merely tolerated; he was valued and had changed his classmates for the better.

At graduation, Whit, Eugene, Katrina, Jason, the Allens, Tom, and Bernard gather to support Connie. Even as she steps to the microphone, she has not announced her decision. She explains that she cannot use her own prayer because her faith teaches respect for governing authorities, and school officials have forbidden it. Yet she also believes prayer is a sincere conversation with God made possible through His Son. Reciting words she does not believe would violate that same faith.

Connie therefore chooses a third option. She will offer no invocation at all, ending the school’s fifty-year graduation-prayer tradition rather than disobey authority or speak dishonestly to God. It is not the triumphant speech she has imagined, but it is the honest decision her conscience permits. As she finishes, the room responds with, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Connie closes by asking God to bless the graduates of Odyssey High.