Graduation Speech Written By Senior Matthew Vollmer
When I was begged to do the graduation speech, I figured that I really had no choice in the matter, I had to give the people what they wanted. Some of you may be surprised to see me up here, and may be thinking, “What? Who the fff-heck, is this guy?” Well, for starters, ouch. But I get it. I was never somebody that was incredibly involved. Did I do student council? No. Was I in any sports? No. Honor Society? No. Theater? Well, yeah, actually. I felt like being this uninvolved nerd man might actually give an unbiased opinion on what our four years of high school mean, at least to me. At the end of my eighth grade year, I was sure that I wanted to be an actor. Yeah, you can laugh at that if you want. But seriously, I had kind of felt that way ever since, until very recently. Whether it was from the virus, or from watching too much Grey’s Anatomy, I decided that I wanted to become a surgeon. You know, a real job. I’m just kidding – I have only respect for anyone pursuing some kind of career in the arts. But my point is, that isn’t a decision that I could have come to if it weren’t for high school. In my potential acting career, I was terrified. But now, I feel only excitement. We’ve been taught for all our lives that it’s important to go to school every day, get good grades, get into college, and become happy and
successful. And by now, I think you all know as well as I do that it’s really just not that simple. High school sometimes sucks. College is really, really expensive. I hope that you all know where you are going now that high school is over, but the problem is, how can you be sure? How do you know that things won’t backfire for you?You just don’t. But my answer is this: Who cares? I have learned, uh, “valuable” things from my teachers, like how to write and balance chemical equations, how to EXPONENTIATE, and, oddly enough, how to drive. But something that I have learned for myself, from both these wonderful teachers and from you, my (mostly) wonderful classmates, is that the sky is truly the limit. I know learning geometry when you want to be an artist is a drag, and learning art when you want to be an engineer sucks just as bad. But honestly, don’t take those times for granted. Every single high school experience, every single one, has shaped me into who I am today. And for me, I think that’s good enough. I want you all to try to be happy with who you are now, and even if you aren’t, become that way. Because that’s what high school is really about. Not chemistry, calculus, English, government, or art. It’s about learning who you are and who you want to be. And now that we’re done, nothing is stopping any of you. Thank you. inMiddlebury Magazine | august 2020 17
