In the real slideshow, I found another picture and quote for Chris in a/the nick of time. :D
Okay, so the following is the graduation speech I wrote, because I'm the valedictorian (Not a huge accomplishment at a school as small as mine, but still pretty cool). It's entirely possible that it will be edited between this posting and tonight at 6:00. If I change it I'll repost. The essay I refer to is here. Without further ado (or dinosaurs):
Before we all graduate and go our separate ways, I would like to say two things.
First, I would like to tell you about another graduation speech I read. It is written by Paul Graham, who writes these excellent essays and posts them on the internet. He is a really cool guy. In the late nineties he wrote a web-based online store program and later sold it to Yahoo for millions of dollars. So this is a very smart man.
Anyhow, one of the essays he posted was originally meant to be for a speech to give as a guest speaker at another school's graduation. Obviously, I can't give HIS speech, as much as I loved it, but I can summarize it for you--and I would like to because I thought what he said was really interesting--important even.
So, I suppose you all know of speakers telling people our age that we should follow our dreams, or some other similar theme. The problem with this, he says, is that it makes it sound like you have to know what you want to do RIGHT NOW--that is, that you have to have definite goals--dreams--to follow at this exact moment. This is bad because it discourages you from trying new things in college.
For example, let's say I decided right now that it was my dream to become a games designer. So, then, as I go to college, I'll feel bound to getting a degree in computer science instead of, say, trying some creative writing classes. It could be entirely possible that I would make a much better writer than I would a programmer. Right now I simply don't know.
In the end, he says that what they should be saying is closer to "work on hard problems". What he means by this is that you should find an interest and work on it in your free time, as a side project. School isn't everything, he says--yes, it is important and you should go to school, but school will not teach you all you need to know by itself.
Many of the people that we consider geniuses of their time did this. Albert Einstein didn't formulate the General Theory of Relativity to pay the bills--that's what his day job was for. He did it because he got curious about the problem and worked on it in his free time until he came up with E=MC^2. William Shakespeare too didn't have to chain himself to a desk all the time to write some of the greatest works in English literature. William Shakespeare actually liked writing.
So, the point--don't spend all your time after classes slacking off and making out with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Instead, use some of that time to work on some side projects and learn what you like to do.
Paul Graham, naturally, said this much better than I could. He also wrote a lot more than I have spoken here, volume-wise. For that I apologize.
Second, I would like to just tell you that I will miss you. You have all been my friends for at least the last six years, and now most of you I may not see again. I read a statistic recently that said I'll only see about 20% of you after high school--that's about four people! So, this could be a final goodbye.
Goodbye then, and I will miss you all. I hope that everybody has good luck in the next few years and end up achieving their dreams--or, at least, finding some fun projects to work on in their free time.
And that's that. Enjoy. :D
P.S: The newest Power Rangers is called "Space Force Delta". And here I thought "Dino Force" was the latest. :P
