AHS Valedictorian Address 2013

Good afternoon, families, friends, AHS staff and faculty, underclassmen, administrators, elected officials, and classmates. We are here today to do something incredible. We are here to complete a thirteen year course that covers the gamut of everything from basic reading and counting through trigonometry and writing a ten-page paper on North Korea. And some of us still don’t know how many sides a heptagon has, no matter how many times we’ve learned it. But that’s okay, that’s all okay. Those pieces of paper say we do know how many sides a heptagon has, and that’s all that really matters.

I’ll admit that when I first learned I would have to give a speech at graduation, I was a little nervous. But, when I discovered that I would be speaking after my friend and colleague Michael P. Starr, I suddenly became a little less nervous. Now that the pressure was off, I was free to ponder what I would actually write about. But how can I possibly capture our class’s collective feelings about the last four years in a brief monologue written and delivered by an obscure if not good-looking seventeen-year-old? How can I capture the essence of our Avon High School experience, the sights, the sounds, the smells? Oh, the smells, from the whiff of that freshman speedily and awkwardly passing by in the hallway to those couple of days when the aroma of garbage permeated the school building.

Should I break the ice with a joke? How about … A priest, a rabbi, and Mrs. Gowanlock walk into humanities … wait, no! We all know how that ends. I begin to feel a weakness inside and as in all moments of tribulation, I turn to the words of one of the great philosophizers of our time, Jonathan Correa, who once pronounced, “Some people believe that we make our own fate and that nothing is decided for us without our permission. But nonetheless sometimes things do happen that are out of our control.” And as always, Jonathan’s words get me to thinking: How much do we control our lives? To what extent does fate dictate our actions and our surroundings?

A lot of people underestimate the power of luck. Even the least superstitious people sometimes consider events as lucky or unlucky. I consider myself a fairly lucky person but am nonetheless perplexed by what luck is, where it comes from, and what governs it. British psychologist Richard Wiseman wrote an article in 2003 attempting to answer these questions. He gave a group of subjects a newspaper and told them to count how many photographs there were, but on the second page of the paper was a message in giant print, "Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper." People who considered themselves unlucky took about two minutes to count the photographs, while those who considered themselves lucky took just seconds. The conclusion was groundbreaking: lucky people are more observant to chance opportunities. Wiseman performed other experiments, including teaching unlucky individuals to be luckier through altering their behavior. He also concluded that lucky people are more likely to talk to strangers at parties, take an alternate route to work, and view a bad situation as good by imagining how it could be worse.

I’m sure all of us would like to be luckier; it’s just a matter of how we view the world. So, go out and expect great things and if you know luck will come your way, it probably will. Imagine: you haven’t chanced upon a double humanities on the special care and assistance given to motherhood by the UDHR; instead, you’ve found the perfect opportunity to finish that calc homework that’s due the next period. Or, a picture in the yearbook is not a stepping stone that brings Vicky Zirolli closer to going down in history as the most depicted Avon High Senior. It’s an opportunity to preserve a moment with your friends forever by actually submitting candid photos before the deadline. (Achem!) It’s all a matter of vision.

But discovering luck in your own life is just the first step. Go out and make it somebody else’s lucky day. Form a long intimate friendship or just start a conversation with someone you barely know. In the words of Outkast, lend your neighbor some sugar. The luckier the people around you are, the luckier you’ll be.   

I think that graduation is an important milestone in our lives, a transition from being kids who act like adults to being adults who act like kids, but take from it what you may. You may choose to view this ceremony as fluff you have to sit through to prove you finished high school, and you’re probably right to an extent. But, you may recognize this day as the last moments you will spend with most of your classmates from the past four years, whether it be to reminisce on fond memories or to make amends for petty altercations that may never see rest unless reconciled today. We are not at the finish line but instead at the enlightening resolution of our high school experience. This is a perfect opportunity to redefine the way you approach the world. Make yourself that lucky person who is able to row on without being borne back ceaselessly into the past.

I would like to thank the faculty and staff of Avon Public Schools for giving me and my classmates a stellar education over the past thirteen years. Shout out to M.C. Cormick, Missy G., Mrs. R, Pelly G., Mickey D., Sal, Darrel, “Mrs. L to the B”, J. Lo, and my other teachers for whom I have no nicknames. I would like to thank my two sisters, Katie and Lauren, and my mom and dad, who gave me the greatest gift of all by enabling me to work towards my dreams. Finally, I would like to thank and applaud my classmates. You have all made the last four years the best of my life, and though our hard work and perseverance, we are now the Avon High School graduating class of 2013. Congratulations!

Thank you.