Church Boy -> jschlatt au

19

Walking across the stage in a cap and gown was just as satisfying as Jonathan imagined. As he walked across the stage he knew this meant freedom. He knew he'd be back on the stage later, giving his final speech as valedictorian. His parents cheered loudly and snapped about a hundred pictures of him, but he didn't care about them. He smiled widely at his boyfriend, who was cheering him on as well. After the class had finally finished walking across the stage, Jonathan was invited up to send a final goodbye for the student body.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Jonathan Schlatt, if you didn't know. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I would say up here without sounding like a total dork or a sap. I was overthinking it a lot, and then I finally figured it out. High school is one of the scariest times for us teenagers. You can laugh at that, but honestly, it is. We're at this stage in life where we want to figure ourselves out without the help of anyone, and that's really difficult. To the parents, look back at yourself in high school. Did you ask your parents for help when it came to relationships?" The crowd laughed as the older generation reflected on their past.

This was the reaction that Jonathan was hoping for. He wanted everyone to be calm and enjoying the speech. He had big plans for this speech that he told no one about. 

"Figuring yourself out is difficult. You dip your toes into the water of different personality traits and screw up until you figure out what works best for you. Everyone is figuring out who they are together, but alone at the same time. I don't imagine any of us walked up to our friends and said "hey, i'm trying to figure my personality out so if I seem bipolar, please ignore it". You just have to change yourself and hope no one gets angry about it." Jonathan made eye contact with Ryan, who seemed to be squirming in his chair.

He looked over to his parents, who had a wash of confusion across their face. He took a deep breath in and looked at his paper, which had bullet points for notes. He didn't want to write word-for-word what his speech would be so it would feel more genuine as he spoke. It made the speech feel more raw.

"I just wanted to let every student here know that we all need to forgive ourselves. We've all done things that we regret. I know I wish I could change a few things about this school year, but the past is in the past. We have a bright future ahead of us, and what we did in the halls of this school won't matter in ten years." 

The boys heart was pounding as he drew near the conclusion. His parents didn't seem all too happy with his speech, since it seemed like it was promoting the Christian values they had enforced onto their son.

"This year was a big one for me. As most of us did, I did a lot of soul-searching and figuring out who I am. If someone as boring as I am can go through this, than I assume most of you did as well." Laughs filled the room from his schoolmates. They seemed to appreciate hearing this from the schools biggest nerd.

"Most parents think high school is where we base our future, but I think it's where we base ourselves. We have plenty more school to figure out our future, right? I didn't hear people talk about class in the halls, and that's for sure. We talked about ourselves and our own issues, right? I just want everyone to know that that's okay! Don't beat yourself up for wanting to know who's single and who's going to prom together." 

"In the future, none of this matters. We'll look back and laugh at our silly selves, who were stressing over our outfits and hair and whether or not we did the assignments for our next class. Let yourself relax and stop forcing yourself to judge. That was a difficult lesson for me. Stop judging people, and certainly stop judging myself."

Jonathan's eyes scanned the audience, who seemed to be nodding along. He thought back to all the times he had judged people for no reason. It made him feel guilty, because everyone was just trying to survive high school. He looked at his parents, who definitely did not seem happy with him. But then he saw Ryan, who was smiling so wide that Jonathan had to stop himself from smiling back at him.