PARIS GRAMANN

I’ve always been one of those kids who just KNEW I wanted to speak at my graduation. I couldn’t leave without saying thank you in some way.

 

I’ve never questioned that each of our teachers and staff members cared for us. You could always see it in their eccentric and content heavy projects and in the personal relationships that they created. This year especially, in our final culmination of mandatory learning, we have felt the bonds strengthen when asking for letters of recommendation, going on final trips, or simply just … thinking about how much we are going to miss games of “Heads Up” with teachers.

 

Take a moment now to just … soak in how good it feels to be DONE with college applications.  ….. Okay, that’s enough! It’s funny, we are all FINALLY past that process, and I now feel like we students finally get to do what matters to us as individuals. What will make us FEEL great, not just look good on paper. We don’t solely have to feel as though we must do the things that will make us “well-rounded applicants”, but now, we can do the things that will make us well-rounded human beings.

 

It is an odd responsibility if you think about it. Our goal NOW, is to live our lives. We now get to pursue the future that we have recently been dreaming up. Well, we also get to pay bills, pay off the school loans we are just DYING to rack up, and .. of course, we have to make sure to secure amazing jobs. Mainly in order to afford our oncoming coffee addictions.

 

As we approach life, we are able to choose goals that WE decide to put in place. We are now RUNNING towards possibility. Towards opportunity. Towards change.

 

Here in front of us we hold the future. One hundred and twenty five pieces OF it.

 

These seats hold the minds that have been shaped by the incredible teachers at High Tech High.

 

These seats hold the minds of engineers, writers, surgeons, CEOs, artists, teachers …

 

These seats hold adults, and some … who are working towards it … but each seat holds an adventurer. Each seat holds an inquirer who will question current processes, ones who will ask, “Why? …. Why don’t we make it better?”

 

Each seat holds a malleable start of an incredible piece of history. A change, right at the fingertips of the world.

 

I have joked before that High Tech High has brought us back to our childhood. The teachers have turned us BACK into annoying toddlers. It seems as though our favorite question has beCOME: “Why?”

 

Why are we learning this?

 

Why does it work THAT way?

 

Why couldn’t we do it this way instead?

 

So, “Why” are we the High Tech High class of 2015? Not only because our parents signed us up into the admissions raffle without our knowing. And not just because we were introduced into one of the best learning environments that a student could ask for. And DEFINITELY not only because we were provided with an incredible and caring staff that lives and breathes growth. It is because we have learned to be adventurers.

 

And we couldn’t have found a place better suited to do so.

 

So to all of those who have encouraged us to stretch our imaginations, to push past our limits, and to LOVE learning, thank you.

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