Congratulations to Alex on his acceptance to seminary!
Such willingness to explore a vocation is not just a fruit of his individual love of God but of a family & parish environment that makes such a love of God possible and such a vocation thinkable. So thank you also, St. John Parish!
Here is an excerpt from his letter of acceptance to seminary:
Dear Alex, I write to inform you that you have now been officially accepted as a seminarian for the Diocese of Dallas! Following your successful completion of the seminary application material and necessary requirements therein, the Diocesan Seminarian Admissions Board met earlier today to review and discuss your application and voted unanimously in favor of your final acceptance. The diocese is very pleased to have you begin seminary formation this coming fall!
Blessings,
Reverend John M. Szatkowski, Director
Alex was also the 2014 Salutatorian of the graduating class of Ennis High School. Here is his Salutatorian Speech:
Salutatorian Speech
Alex Fry
In the fourth grade, my life began. This was the year I had my first girlfriend. I was sitting on the slide when I asked her friend to ask her if she wanted to, “go out.” She said yes, and the playground went wild. We broke up two weeks later.
In the fifth grade, I fell in love. We were a match made in Heaven, and the whole school knew it. To this day, those six wonderful months remain the longest relationship I have ever maintained. Sadly, we both agreed that we needed to see more of the world, and we went our separate ways. I dated four more girls that year.
In the sixth grade, I attended my first school dance. I wore my favorite red button-up shirt, generously doused in the cologne I had received at Christmas, and paid my five bucks to stand along the wall and watch the other kids dance. It was magical. Thirty minutes in, the slow song came on, and after pushing past the initial shock of terror, I mustered up enough confidence to ask a girl to dance. With my hands latched onto her upper middle back, we shuffled our feet to the beat of the song, making small talk about the snack stand. Boy, what a night!
In the seventh grade, I joined the tennis team and played saxophone in the band. Let’s just say I was not the coolest kid in school by any measure. However, I managed to get a spot at the popular kid’s lunch table, right at the end, but a spot nonetheless. In that spot, I would find myself day after day at the butt end of a barrage of jokes, relatively harmless on their own, but caustic in accumulation. I left the table by the end of the year with a newfound understanding of friendship.
In the summer following eighth grade, a naïve fourteen year old boy was sitting on a wooden bench, underneath a tree, at summer camp, confessing his sins with the help of a patient priest from Tulsa. In that unexpected moment, strange and sweet new words fell softly on his heart from a source unknown. For the first time in his life, he believed he had been created by God for a specific, preordained purpose: to be a priest.
For the first semester of high school, I kept the idea of the priesthood mostly to myself. It was hard to explain, and truthfully, I wanted to see if it was just a phase. At the same time, I took what little faith I had and my Sunday school education, and I began to grow in my knowledge of who my creator is, I learned how to talk to Him, and more importantly, how to listen to Him and follow Him. When the time was right, I told my parents. I know now that beneath their initial reaction of surprise, there was always love and understanding.
Over the last four years of high school, I have explored what it means to be human, what it means to be a man, what it means to be catholic, what it means to be a leader, and what it means to be a friend. I have started learning how to love, how to learn, and how to live, and I’ve made many good friends along the way. Looking forward, the book is open, the pages are blank, and the pen is in the hand of the creator. I am ready for the future, and I am excited to go home, but more importantly I am happy for here and now, thankful for the life I have been given, thankful for the gift that is today, and thankful for the chance to love and serve the Lord.
I’d like to finish with an Irish blessing:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
God bless the Class of 2014 and God bless America.