As a kid growing up in Bradford in a single-parent household with seven siblings, Sam Crowley knew adversity.
The commencement speaker for Bradford Area High School’s class of 2017 also told the graduates on Thursday that there will always be adversities in life, but they can surely be followed by the mountain tops.
Thursday’s commencement ceremonies for the 137th graduating class at the high school provided diplomas to 178 graduates in the high school auditorium.
Crowley, a 1986 graduate of Bradford High School, is a speaker, author, trainer, podcast host and serial entrepreneur. His motivational podcast, Every Day Is Saturday, is heard in over 100 countries and has had 10 million downloads since going live in 2006.
Crowley admitted he didn’t write a speech, claiming he couldn’t stay focused for more than three seconds. He then delivered a speech later described by Principal David Ray as both unique and inspiring. The speaker’s humorous comments and sincerity throughout his speech brought laughter at times, as well as hushed, respectful silence.
In an overview of his life, Crowley said he is the father of four daughters, with the youngest, Susan, born prematurely at 24 weeks. She was given about two hours to live after birth.
“My wife and I didn’t take that for an answer, because that’s not how my mom … raised me,” he said. “Those of you who knew my mom, knew she was a tough old bird.”
With faith and his mother’s spirit in tow, Crowley and his wife wouldn’t give up on their infant daughter even when doctors told them she would likely die at the age of 2 days. They still didn’t give up on their baby and constantly urged her to “just take one more breath, Susan, one more breath.”
Their little girl did survive and will be 3 years old this summer.
“If I could give you a pill to take, it would be that you are going to face adversity, you will go into the valley,” he remarked. “But it’s the mountaintop where you end up that’s most important.”
Crowley said he faced adversity growing up in Bradford as the youngest of eight children supported by their mother after their father left the family when he was just 3 months old. Throughout the years, Crowley’s late mother and the Bradford community helped him along, lifted him up and held him accountable. In later years, when he needed a helping hand in distant areas, it was his friends from Bradford who reached out to him.
“I’m so proud of the community that raised me,” he stated, noting he often mentions Bradford in his podcasts. On a final note, Crowley told the graduates to not “follow the herd, blaze your own trail.”
Without this mindset, he wouldn’t have embarked on his successful podcast career which was criticized by others at first.
Other presentations of the evening included the welcome address by Emily Rose Reams; class address by Morgan Lin Whitlow; and the farewell address by Cara Frances Webster.
Reams said one striking characteristic of the class of 2017 was its undying school spirit.
“Our class supported all of our sports and the Marching Owls … I even remember seeing some kids go to cross country meets, and trust me, you need a lot school spirit for that,” Reams said while bringing laughs from the audience.
Whitlow told her fellow graduates that the class has witnessed much change in their lives, from the rise of terrorism to the revival of hate crimes.
“There is also an overwhelming responsibility placed upon us by former generations to essentially fix the world,” Whitlow observed. “So, we freeze. We bury our heads in the sand.”
She told her classmates they can indeed change the planet because each of them “has some talent, idea, or ability, that could change the world immensely.”
In her farewell address, Webster told the graduates that they, and others in the auditorium, should never settle for less, and to keep growing as a person.
“I believe that everyone should strive to become the best version of themselves,” Webster said.
