Veronica High

GRADUATION!!

ITS GRADUATION DAY!! WOOOO!!

I get up after my little celebration in my head and get dressed.

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Four Eaton

Tris Prior

Caleb Prior

Uriah Pedrad

Zeke Pedrad

Lynn Ashfield (I DONT KNOW ANY LAST NAMES)

Shauna Ashfield

Christina Mellors

Will Traynor (Me Before You anyone)

Marlene Hayes

They all went up and got their thing and shook hands with the Principal.

Last but not least Kara Eaton who will be doing a speech. I took a deep breath and went on stage to collect my thing and shake hands and do my speech.

The plane leaves on Saturday. Its Monday. So why are you already packing? This would be the question Id always ask my mom before our annual trip to Los Angeles. Shed respond by telling me that she started packing early in the week so that if she remembered something later on, she could always pack it. Being somebody who usually packed his bags at the airport, I thought this was the most ridiculous idea.

But Mom, I guess Im just like you because I started writing this speech back in September so that when I remembered something or something happened or something inspired me, Id be ready to write it down.

I have to say that my greatest inspiration came from a book most of us have read. Our math book. It was late Thursday night, and I was sitting on the ground with my calculus book sprawled out in front of me, checking the answer to an odd-numbered problem. I flipped to the back, and there I saw the answer: it was a fraction — 2/7ths.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how 2/7ths, how 2 parts of 7, have come to define who we are, especially as teenagers. Let me explain why. As humans, we usually have to have something to look forward to in order to get us through the days, and more often than not, that something we look forward to is the weekend. We push ourselves through the week to get to the weekend. We push ourselves to the point where we have become 2/7ths people, only really living 2 days out of the 7 in a week.

Sure, blood is moving through our veins and yeah, oxygen is flowing through our lungs in those 5 weekdays as it is on those 2 weekend days, but it is not the same. We are not the same. In those five days, are we really living or are we living on auto-pilot?

We push ourselves through the week to get to the weekend. We push ourselves to the point where we have become 2/7ths people, only really living 2 days out of the 7 in a week.

Things can be different, though. We can look forward to those 5 weekdays just like we do the weekend, and thereby become 7/7ths people. And thereby become whole. Daily life can be a lot more interesting and meaningful if we take risks, shed our fear of failure, chase our dreams, and spend more time with one another. If we just do that, we will find ourselves becoming more invested in the Here and Now instead of looking at the clock and counting down time.

One way we can move closer to becoming 7/7th people is by taking risks in our daily lives, whether big or small, academic or social. (pause) So take a risk. Say hi to that person in the hallway instead of making brief eye contact then choosing to glance away until you pass each other. Weve all done it. In the moment, youre thinking: Will he say hi? — Should I initiate? — Will it be awkward if I dont? Just say it. Human beings are creatures of emotion, attachment, and attention and you hold the power to make someones day. And if worse comes to worst, remember that awkward is nothing but a state of mind.