I’ve just returned from St. Petersburg, where I was the alumni speaker at Canterbury School of Florida’s graduation ceremony.

I’ve always felt indebted to this small school for the dedicated teachers and generous financial aid that gave me a truly unique and comprehensive education.

With 24 graduating seniors (three more than my own Class of 1983), I expected this small and intimate event to be profoundly sentimental for me, but not so significant for Fox News. That is, until I found out the other guest speaker was veteran anchorman John Wilson from WTVT, Fox’s powerhouse station in the Tampa Bay Area.

Now Canterbury’s Fox/student ratio was 1 to 12.

Adding to the coincidence, John Wilson was the speaker at my own high school graduation which was held at the very same location.

Estimating the distance between the speaker’s podium and the graduating seniors sitting in the front pews of St. Peter’s Cathedral (where I sat listening to John Wilson 25 years ago), I joked that I had moved only 25 feet over the past quarter of a century.

The students had obviously changed and only one of my original teachers was still on the Canterbury faculty. Although, I was delighted to see in the audience, Ms. Donna Fowler, a former Canterbury teacher who helped me conquer my fear of math.

Names and faces had changed, but not much else — not the dedication of the teachers, the love of proud parents, or the dreams of a new graduating class.

I remember my own dreams from graduation night 25 years ago — dreams of becoming a broadcast journalist as I listened to John Wilson describe his profession in a single word: “awesome.”

Listening to John speak a quarter of a century later, it’s obvious he is still passionate about his career. I’m following my own professional dreams and was grateful to be able to return to, and thank, the school that helped make it all possible.

In this case, moving only 25 feet in 25 years is a good thing.