How Will You Take Flight? Step-Up & Graduation, 2026

6/4/2026

By: Virginia Paik, Head of School

Congratulations to all of our graduates and students who stepped up at this year's Step Up and Graduation ceremony. We wish you the best and look forward to more opportunities to celebrate your successes in the future.

How Will You Take Flight?
By Virginia Paik

Congratulations to our Class of 2026 on your Graduation from Live Oak School. And congratulations to all of our students on the conclusion of a memorable, joyful, and impactful year at school.

Though you sit here in your spots, you appear ready to rise.

The crowd is gazing on you, buzzing with pride.

How will you take flight?

You’ve shown us your minds, kind and expanding.

You’ve shown us your hearts, courageous and caring.

You’ve established your person, your place, and this moment.

Now, how will you take flight?

Imagine a nest with young birds perched upon it, a runway for planes,

Or a launchpad for rockets.

Bees fly, with a buzz, round a hive.

Gliders tether to a sail on a mountain side.

How will you take flight?

You’ve done:

Estimation

Modulation

Contemplation

Iteration

Mediation

Derivation

Annotation

Simulation

You’ve learned to:

Calculate

Formulate

Communicate

Collaborate

Instigate

Ideate

Navigate

Educate

Oh, ever are you ready!

So, how will you take flight?

Your head is packed with the tools you need for the journey

And your hands hold the skills you’ll use on the ride.

The destination that guides your direction

And the pathway that lays out your time

Are solely yours to decide.

How will you take flight?

The albatross flies with a system in mind

On wings spread nearly 12 feet wide.

The departure must be from a perch in a tree

To start the thousands mile ride.

She’ll soar the patterns of oceans winds,

Mapped from her years in the air-

An arc of a journey,

Wings locked into place,

Away from and back to her isle, her base.

How will you take flight?

Will you plan your departure

With a long runway ahead

And go as a jet plane flies?

Structures and procedures as guides?

Complete pre-flight checklists.

Monitor instrument panels.

Log readings of speed, tilt, and height.

Mark waypoints in day and in night-

Reliable, scalable, capable.

How will you take flight?

When a honeybee leaves its hive

They’ve got thousands of mates by their side-

Foragers, undertakers, guards, and scouts-

Each a job that’s specialized.

They communicate and coordinate,

With a waggle of their backside.

Their language is their dance.

Their network is their mind.

How will you take flight?

Will you blast from this place

As a rocket might,

Thrust toward a single target?

Hyperfocused, intense, and clear.

Break through resistance.

Have no fear.

You’re heading out there.

You know where.

But, no one's been before.

How will you take flight?

A hang glider flies with intuition,

An engine of feelings attuned-

Sensing and learning,

Shifting and turning.

Each move is made with care.

It’s curiosity that propels this rider

To alight on columns of air.

How will you take flight?

The skies above expect your play, your work, your dreams alike.

They’re open wide for what you may.

So how will you take flight?

You hear the question asked of you

Is not should or would or could?

There’s no doubt of your

Capacity

Or agency

Or readiness

Or might.

But you must design your flight.

And when you do,

Take landing gear.

And find your way, right back here.

We’ll begin again another year.

We’ll welcome a visit when you travel near.

Please tell us then,

With words or pen,

How you felt,

Who you met,

What you saw,

All you learned,

And how you took your flight.

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How Will You Take Flight? Step-Up & Graduation, 2026

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