Salutatorian: There's so much this world can offer you

by Aiden Freeman

Hello Everyone! How are you doing? My name is Aidan Freeman, and I am your 2024 Salutatorian.

I want to thank you all for giving me your time, attention, and the opportunity to speak in front of you. Because I don’t want to take too long with this speech, I would like to share something rather small and simple that’s been in my mind - how powerful learning really is.

I know, you’ve been lectured enough about the importance of learning, I’m sure you’re sick of it by now! But there is a lot more to learning than school makes it out to be. So, everyone, please don’t just tune out, please hear what I have to say for these short few minutes. I, and I’m sure many people in this audience, can say with experience that learning is a lot more fun when YOU want to do it. It’s one thing to sit down in a classroom, trying to remember topics that you don’t care about in order to get a certain grade on a fancy piece of paper - but it’s another thing to learn something you actually want to learn about. For example, in these last couple years I’ve been teaching myself how to speak Spanish, Japanese, and French, and most of my music theory knowledge came from my own research on the internet.

I’m showing you all this to say that I went through the process of finding something I wanted to learn about, not what the school wanted me to learn, and I pursued it because it brought me joy. Everyone here has experienced how soul-sucking school can be, it’s true! But I am here to say that there is such a thing as fun learning. There is such a thing of finding something you’re interested in, and wanting to know more about it simply because of the happiness it brings you. No stress, no grades, no finals, all that matters is you and how much fun you’re having. 

So I’ll say this to everyone here, even if you got bored and didn’t listen to the other parts of my speech, I want you to listen and to remember this: As you graduate from high school, whether you’re wanting to go to college or not - there is still so much this wonderful world can offer you. So much knowledge, so many amazing opportunities, and so much to discover and learn. Not for a grade, but for yourself. And to those of us who haven’t graduated yet, or have graduated years and years ago: continue learning. Continue exploring. Continue finding new things that you love, loving yourself, and loving life. Always be intensely curious! I wish you all the best of luck with your futures. Thank you.