Class of 2016

Fellow classmates, faculty, family and friends, it is truly an honor to be speaking here and I wanted to start it off by congratulating my classmates. It has been a road paved by strife, diligence, chronic senioritus, and quite a few senior ditch days but we made it here so I think that deserves a round of applause.
Alright, this speech is going to get a little bit interactive. So to begin, I’d like to ask everyone to please turn off their cell phones. Recently, I have recognized a trend of fervent cell phone usage among my classmates, and so have the teachers. Mr. Efram recently showed all of his classes a video and article on the idea of screenagers: teenagers addicted to their cell phones as if it were a drug. They are the ultimate distraction as students check them while they are out in class and worry about them when they are away in backpacks.
Now could everyone please turn their cell phones back on. But are they really so bad? What about their benefits and their nifty convenience? In my freshman year poetry slam in Mr. Linker’s class, I wrote a poem on cell phones, referring to them as “vessels of entertainment” and in the years since the devices have more and more so proved themselves as such.
The iPhone 4s came out in 2012 when we were freshmen. The technology is now much like the revered Mr. Lee: it’s pretty old. It is an amazing testament to our crave of what is new and current that in the four short years of our high school we have ousted the cute iPhone which we once loved.
Our phone usage has evolved. As a class, it wouldn’t be false to claim we are the most connected ever. With huge group messages, we are always together. Whether those group messages be organizing a ditch day or the legendary roast group chat, no friend is ever far away.
Now pick up your phone and take a Snapchat of me up here on this podium. With Snapchat, we will always see each other’s stories like Rico’s rants, Tristan on his dirt bike, or Harry listening to Biggie Smalls in his van.
Phones have proved to be aids scholastically as well. They give us the power to record and keep forever Mr. Sheehy’s guitar performances or Maggie Flores getting hit in the face with a kickball during a rally.
If you were to Google Steven Spielberg, you may come across this quote: “Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we’re too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.”
While the cherished father of ET has a good point for most cases, he forgets the spirit and vitality of our generation. Nothing, no Silicon Valley gadget nor any hindrance may stop our story. We are the leaders of tomorrow, and tomorrow is looking bright, not from the flashlight of our iPhones but from the promise in our actions. The class of 2016 are dreamers and the vastness of what we will achieve will not be degraded by Clash of Clans.
We are a class of scholars, going on to some of the best schools in the nation. We are a class of athletes, with MVP awards and championships beneath our belts. We were the last class to experience the legendary Tom Kirkpatrick and the first to experience Officer Rob. We are the class which brought hacky sacking to Healdsburg High School. We are the class which sent out only Bryant Herrguth in our sophomore REIBT dance competition, and he killed it.
In addition to these things, we each completed an academic internship our junior year at places like the Healdsburg District Hospital, SoFi and Fusion Technology. Also, we collectively completed more than 6,000 hours of community service.
My classmates, as I look out at you now, I implore you to never compromise your story. Life on a screen is valuable, but it is not life to the fullest.
The phone is not an instructor up in front of the class, once hated and now loved, it does not tell stories, it is not a friendly conversation in the hallway, it does not spark relationships. It is none of those many treasured moments which we have come to love and appreciate from our time here at Healdsburg High. The late nights which we will all remember are the ones we have spent together, not the ones spent staring at a screen.
So as you conquer your future ventures, do it with your chin high and eyes level. Do it unabridged by the pressures of notifications and carry with you Healdsburg pride in your every action.
Now it is only fitting to close a graduation speech about cell phones with one final selfie with all my classmates, and I even bought a selfie stick. So here we go.
Class of 2016, I honestly wish you all the best and I know great things lie in our horizon. Peace out Healdsburg.
— Zachary Valley was the student speaker at the Healdsburg High School gradution last week