Charlton Singleton, GRAMMY Award winner and founding member of the jazz band Ranky Tanky, was the commencement speaker during Meeting Street Elementary & Middle – Brentwood’s eighth grade promotion ceremony on May 29. Below are his remarks.
Thank you very much, Principal Michael, faculty and staff, parents, students, and of course, our graduates. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of the celebration.
I’m a product of Charleston County schools. I grew up in Awendaw, which is just next to Mount Pleasant. I went to Wando High School back in the day – the original location.
I graduated from South Carolina State University. I’ve taught music in this county and had the opportunity to work with a lot of fantastic people and teachers such as Ms. (Alumni Transition Coordinator Courtney) Curtis so I thank her for the invitation to come be with you all today.
When I told my wife that I was going to be speaking at a graduation, she said, ‘Oh, Lord. Please keep it short!’ And if anybody knows me out there, then you know that I can get a little long winded, so I promise you that I will be as short as I can today.
Today, is for you all. But as you can see, your family and your friends sitting with you, the administration, the staff – they’re all celebrating just as hard as you are today because this is a monumental moment in your lives.
As someone who has been a teacher before, I reflect a lot of times on being a student. Even though I’m way past being in eighth grade, I can remember certain things that happened during that time. And I know that there’s been times where you’ve had some teacher or faculty member yell at you. And you feel like they’re out to get you. I promise you that part of that was that they probably are seeing great potential in you and are just frustrated that you haven’t seen that potential in yourself yet. And that’s an amazing thing.
When I was in the seventh grade, my middle school band director was Mr. Smith. We were in class and I played something wrong that we’d been working on. It was one of those things where we would practice it and practice it and practice it and get it right, and then we would come back the next day and we would play it and it would be wrong. It was just a vicious cycle. And I did it wrong.
One day, he was just livid. He started yelling at me to focus and be a little bit more diligent and practice. Stay focused. The next year, in eighth grade, we were going to play at a football game for the first time and I was going to do a solo that was maybe 10 seconds long, but I was really nervous. At that time, there’s about 1,000 people in these big stands and I’m going to stand there, with my little trumpet in my hand, and play. That’s nerve wracking.
Mr. Smith saw that I was really nervous about it and he pulled me aside and he was like, “Look, you’ve got this. You’ve practiced. I know you’ve practiced. We’ve done this over and over. We’ve prepared. I think that I have taught you well. You’ve gone through the motions. You’ve done it. You’re prepared. You’re going to be fine. Just take your time and deliver it. You can do it.”
Best pep talk I think I’ve had. And that Friday night, I got up there. I was a little nervous, but I stood right there on the 50-yard line and I played. I did alright, and I could tell that he was happy because I saw him over on the sideline and he smiled.
Fast forward. That was about 1984. Fast forward to 2018. My band, Ranky Tanky, we are in Portland, Oregon. And we’re playing at this blues festival and we’re really not a blues band. But we’re at this big festival outside downtown Portland and there’s about 10,000 people in front of us. And I see way out in the back of the crowd is this hat that’s moving up toward the front.
I’m about to play this solo. It’s lengthy, probably two or three minutes that I’m just improvising – just me and the drum. I played some notes that didn’t fit and this hat – you can’t miss it – this crazy looking hat is coming through the audience. And it was Mr. Smith.
Now I knew that he had moved, but I didn’t know where I knew he went. He heard that we were going to be at this festival – this is 30 something years later – and he showed up. And he made his way down there and he saw that I was a little frustrated with some of my note choices.
And he went, “Shake it off. You got this.” After the show, he came up to me and he said, “That was fantastic. You’ve done so well and I’m so proud of you. It beats those days when we were practicing in that beat up trailer over there at Lang Middle School.”
You have teachers who are going to remember you for the rest of your lives. And they will still try to educate you and comfort you and instruct you and above all, support you, even when you are long gone from their classroom. That’s just a fact.
My mom was a librarian for 37 straight years at Lincoln High School in McClellanville. When she would give speeches, she would always use acronyms for things. I’ve adopted that. And as I closeout this speech, I’d like to give you all an acronym of BRENTWOOD. And I’d like everybody to participate so repeat after me.
B is for beginning. This is the beginning of a new educational chapter in your life. Be aggressive in exploring all that high school has to offer.
R is for receptive. Be receptive to new subjects, new ideas, new friendships and new partnerships. Those new experiences could lead to amazing careers. Let me ask you this: Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of a group called Boyz II Men? They are one of the most famous groups of all time, and they met in high school chorus class. New friends and new partnerships could lead to a whole lot of things.
E – Be energetic, engaging and enthusiastic. You want to be that student that your teachers and friends say, “Their energy was undeniable. Their enthusiasm is one of the things I remember most. They were so engaged that it made us feel good just to be around them.” All of those things are just going to enhance your education. Trust me on that.
N is for never ending. Even though you are graduating from Brentwood, don’t forget that the love and support from the administrators, teachers and staff and your fellow students is going to be never ending. I still have friends that show up to my gigs that I met when I was in kindergarten.
T is for tenacious. Now I’m a graduate of South Carolina State University and our mascot, like yours, is the bulldogs. And we have a saying – Bulldog tenacity. Be tenacious in what you pursue.
W is for welcome. Welcome new subjects. Welcome new friends and relationships. Welcome new ideas. All these things are only going to continue to help shape the person that you will continue to evolve into.
There are two Os so we’re going to go with observant and optimistic. Be observant in everything around you. My grandfather had a saying – always look for the gnat on the tree limb a mile away. Now I’ll translate that for you. Keep your eyes open, searching and moving forward in a positive manner. I encourage you all to be optimistic in showing folks the best of you and searching for the best in anything that you do.
D is for dedicated. Be dedicated. Be dedicated to becoming the best that you can be. Sometimes you just don’t know what that is. But you have to keep searching for it and you have to keep going.
If someone had told me in 1980 when I was watching Bobby McFerrin on TV accept a GRAMMY Award that I would be standing on the stage next to him years later and accepting a GRAMMY Award, I would look at them and say they were crazy. Be dedicated to pursuing the best sort of education that you can, and it starts next year when you go to high school.
Thank you all once again for inviting me to be a part of your celebration. Congratulations to you all.
