Listen to Intuition
by Kate Webb

I am very glad to stand before the senior class today, the day you receive your senior blazers. It is an honor to be in front of such marvelous young ladies and gentlemen who have come so far in this fine education institution. To reach this point, you have each spent many long hours and hard evenings working to fulfill your requirements in this class or that but there have also been many fun experiences that can help you grow into mature young ladies and gentlemen.

Today is an important day that you will always remember and hopefully my message will also be something you can look back on and remember as well. I encourage each and every one of you to think back to your sophomore year, the year you read Mark Twain’s American classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This book has many important lessons you can take with you as you begin adult life. It teaches everyone to not judge a person by the color of their skin, to be true to your friends, and also to follow your instincts instead of always trusting what society is going to say. As you might remember, Huck Finn struggles with himself about whether to help Jim become a free man or to do the "right" thing and turn him in as a runaway slave. His moral upbringing has made him believe that it is wrong to help a slave escape to freedom but his heart is telling him to help his friend.

Huck even struggles on a spiritual level about whether helping Jim will send him directly to hell. In the end, however, when he finally must make the decision, he says, "All right, then, I’ll go to hell" and decides to follow his instincts and help his friend.

Interestingly enough, Huck’s quandary still is evident in the decisions people must make today. You are all about to graduate in the spring and in the fall, all of you, will be attending another institution to further your knowledge for your future careers. As seniors, you have been provided with a wonderful education here at the Webb School and this education can be used to guide your actions for the rest of your life. However, I also want to encourage you to listen to your instincts. Huck Finn had to struggle with his morals and often, in this world, you will as well. Many decisions in life are made with your mind, for example, what career you will choose, what car you will drive, and realistically, what house you can afford but other decisions have to be made with your heart; who you will marry, what you will do in an emergency situation. One quote I remember from taking Western Civilization was by an unknown author during the Romantic period that mentioned, "It was my heart that counseled me to do it, and my heart cannot err."

Within the next few months, I would humbly ask you to consider whether you are always a person that follows the crowd or if you are willing to follow the instincts that God has given you when you are faced with a tough decision. Many people have had to make tough decisions but if you listen to your conscience when making those decisions you will make a wise choice.