Spartanburg Day School

The following are the prepared remarks delivered by Spartanburg Day School Head of School Dave Skeen during the School’s 63rd Commencement Ceremony on Friday, May 22, 2026.

For the past eighteen years, parents, you have been actively raising your children. You’ve assiduously guided them through countless chapters of their lives, first steps, first words, first days of school. You’ve seen them through days sprinkled with delight and moments marred by disappointment, through times of abject fear and moments of pure wonder, and witnessed what your child has become.

While today we’ll focus on the graduates’ successes, please know that this day also marks a tremendous success for all of you. Each of these chapters has built upon the last, and they have been defined by your gentle hand.

At one point in this journey, you made the pivotal decision to invest in a school whose entire mission is to provide a superior educational experience, in a community of trust, to prepare students for a life well lived. We, too, have poured all we can into their lives, intermingling your story and theirs with our own, enriching both. Together, we hope we have nurtured individuals who are purposeful, confident, and discerning, individuals who will represent themselves and all of us well in the world they are about to inhabit. We share the hope that what they’ve gained from their Day School experience will help to bend their future into a more positive arc, thanks to the love, care, and challenge they’ve experienced in this first part of their journey.

But it comes with a humbling realization that a life well lived is a long runway. But it shouldn’t feel burdensome. Practically speaking, a life well lived comes from the seemingly unglamorous virtues I hope you have gleaned from your time here at SDS: patience, follow-through, kindness when no one is looking, telling the truth when it’s hard. These little crossroads, these small moments add up over time to achieve a life well lived.

Where once you, parents, and we, the faculty, were incredibly impactful in these students’ lives, directly reminding the children of these moments in conversations with adults (“look them in the eyes, sweetie,” “Yes, ma’am, not ‘wassup,’ dear”), we now become guides, facilitators, sponsors from a clearly crystallizing sideline. We may be able to tweak the life well lived on the edges, but the iteration of the final runway is on you all, and we can’t wait to see what you do.

It should be stated, however, that as you go, we will remember you as you were here, in these halls and classrooms, a fate we as parents and teachers can’t help but fall into with age and, perhaps, wistful wisdom. But you should know, seniors, that it helps us. These memories of your time here, where you learned those unglamorous virtues, mean we remember what it takes for our institution to meet our mission. Your imprint, your legacy as a class, helps Spartanburg Day School grow into itself. And parents, we recognize that it is because you decided that it was important for your child to be here, and for that we thank you.