I’ve realized that I’ll probably never get to give a graduation speech, so here it is: a little early though.

We’ve grown up in these last 12 years. We’re adults now! I can safely say that JP has been a wonderful home to me for the last four years, and I’m so sad that it ended too quickly for so many of us.

But that doesn’t mean we need to look back on our time at JP with sadness. In fact, I really want you guys to look upon our short time at JP with fondness. Moreover, I suck at transitions. shocking, isn’t it?

I really want to talk to you guys today about what impact we have on the world. We’ve got many years ahead of us and many oppurtunities to make a difference.

I want to tell you guys a story. Remember back in freshman year, we read up on some Greek mythology. Well, I did some extra reading, going through the entirety of Homer’s Illiad. What I found was that I was really, really fascinated by Achilles.

Why you ask? In a moment of egoisticality, I imagined myself as Achilles. I saw myself as I swung my sword of graphite through all the paper of tests and I really, really wanted to achieve glory. In the words of the very wise Ash Ketchum, “I wanna be the best, like no one ever was.” Now, as I’m standing with you guys here today, I’m really wondering if it ever made a difference. Was all the studying even worth it?

And of course I have regrets at JP - who doesn’t? I wish I had a better GPA, a better SAT score, dated more often, did more clubs, asked a certain someone out sophomore year…

But in the end, would it still be the same person standing before you here today? Would it still be the same person you know and hopefully love? If I hadn’t gone to all those parties, would I have ever gotten to know some of my closest friends? If I hadn’t procrastinated on weeks of homework to get this website done, would this speech even be here? If I had spent more time studying, and not enough time making memes, would I still be the same person?

Against all things good and Voltaire, I’ll turn these rhetorical questions hypophorically (thanks AP Lang, and thank you Mr. Cashin!). The answer, class of 2021, is no.

No, I wouldn’t have been the same person. And I love who I am. So if I had the chance to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have it any other way. But the lesson is, and I’m going to tell not show here, that choices, and choices alone, define you. It seems like an easy way to get out of being a bad person. But everyone has to start somewhere, right? And its time to leave you class of 2021. Remember, choices define who you are. So, for my sake, make the right ones.