WHS Class of 2010: Valedictorian Speech

Winchester High School 2011 Valedictorian Jeffrey Chen provided the text of his graduation speech to Winchester Patch.

Thank you Dr. Gwin and good afternoon! Faculty, parents, friends, relatives, and fellow classmates; It is an honor to be speaking today.

Being born on September 11th, I felt remorse every time I heard mention of my birth date. For many years, I did not celebrate my birthday on September 11th. On May 1st, 2011, (two thousand eleven) however, justice was duly served. Osama Bin Laden is now dead. I would like to recognize the fine service of the men and women defending our country and fighting for justice. At this moment, let’s give our troops and fellow classmates who are joining the service a big round of applause.

On behalf of the National Honor Society, I would like to thank Mrs. Smith for her wonderful guidance as our advisor this year. Also, I’d like to give a shout out to my fellow officers, Alex Saich, Katy Mckeough, and David Stringfellow who have been great in keeping order and helping accomplish our goals.

Fellow classmates, we’ve been through a lot together! Snow days, flood days, firedrills, moldy days, screw mudbloods basilisk on Tuesdays, and yet we still managed to get down on Fridays.

Many gatherings, including class luncheons, community service opportunities, fundraisers, sports, and clubs, have all brought us together and created a tightly knit community.

But I think what united us the most was our ability to truly care for each other. This year, as we applied to colleges, we all wondered where we would finally end up going. Unfortunately, one of my close friends was denied from all the schools he applied to except for two. One was his dream school, which he was waitlisted from, while the other one he did not prefer. So some of us sat down and composed a petition letter to his dream school. Parents, you might not know this, but over one hundred kids signed the petition within a few hours which helped him get into his top school. More or perhaps all would have signed, given more time. Our class demonstrated with Great Sachem spirit that it would do anything necessary to support a fellow student in need.  Gestures like this give me hope about our future.

What makes our school great lies not only in the students, but also in our teachers. For example, Mr. Benedetto, a very enthusiastic and punny chemistry teacher, went out of his way to hold practice AP test sessions during vacations “Stand and Deliver” style. In fact, he held two of these sessions every vacation; the second one for students who couldn’t make it to the first. Thanks for that Mr. B. It helped. Our teachers are caring and dedicated, two qualities that make them among the best in the nation. Let’s give them a big round of applause.    

Speaking of teachers…

How many of you remember Mr. Gogolos? Raise your hands. Mr. Gogolos, a beloved teacher at the middle school, once said, attitude determines altitude. And as one of my close friends would always say before every test, “Don’t worry it’s going to be easy! Facil!” Believing in yourself is essential to becoming successful.

But, none of us here today are perfect and we all have our own quirks and idiosyncrasies. Well, maybe except for Don Muir. Don, we all love you. During one scene from the movie Finding Nemo, Nemo, a lost clownfish with an abnormally small right fin, is about to be ground to pieces by the fishtank’s filter. Despite the other fish’s pleas for him to swim out of the tube that’s sucking him up, he says, “I can’t, I have a bad fin,” gesturing to his small fin. However, the dark, mysterious character, Gill, swims by him displaying his own scarred fin and says, “Never Stopped Me.” Nemo takes this to heart and struggling, he frees himself from the dangerous situation, instantly shattering his negative perception of himself and changing his attitude towards his own abilities. Attitude determines altitude.

Yes, we will all experience suffering and feel lost at times. But remember this Persian proverb, When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

I’ll admit it, I’ve stayed up late enough at night many times and ended up gazing at the stars; Homework never stopped me. Time management had become a problem for me. One time on facebook, I saw that someone had posted as his status, “If it’s due tomorrow, I’ll do it tomorrow.”

In an episode of Dexter’s Lab, Dexter, debates whether he should “Study now, party later,” or “Party now, study later.” If we left it to human nature, we would all be partying first. But, procrastination can only take you so far.

That said, distance never stopped us during track. I remember vividly how the spring track team ding dong ditched Alex Zaiken every day of the week, rain or shine. How did that feel, Alex? But we’ve all matured. We’ve learned to do it only when his dad wasn’t there, waiting to chase us. Al, we love you, too.

Before I leave the podium, I would like to present the second annual Corn Award given by the president of the National Honor Society to an outstanding member of the class of 2011. After much deliberation, this year’s award goes to Mr. Eddie Fratto. Eddie would you please come up to the podium to receive your award. CORN-gratulations!  

On behalf of all the students, I want to thank the parents, friends, and family for helping us all these years.

Mom and dad, deep down, we all know that what you’re saying and nagging about is right. Thank you for being patient with us. We feel the love.  Let’s give all the parents and grandparents a big round of applause.

Four years of high school have taught me the lessons I just shared with you, and if you stayed awake in the last few minutes you should have caught the drift. If you missed them, here they are again: To live life with a positive attitude, to properly manage your time, and to constantly be helping others. 

Congratulations to the class of 2011 and may the force be with you! Thank you!