Chloe Metz reflects on change in grad speech

The Island Now
Chloe Metz, the salutatorian of Great Neck South High School’s class of 2019, reflects on change and the ‘good old days.’ (Photo courtesy of Great Neck Public Schools)
Chloe Metz, the salutatorian of Great Neck South High School’s class of 2019, reflects on change and the ‘good old days.’ (Photo courtesy of Great Neck Public Schools)

Great Neck South High School Salutatorian Chloe Metz delivered the following commencement speech, which was submitted to the Great Neck News by the Great Neck Public Schools. 

Four years ago, we were know-it-all ninth graders with iPhone 6s and unjustified confidence. We went into high school like little punks until we were blindsided by the workload. Suddenly, we had to work to get good grades. All those clichéd high-school movies lied to us—there was no dancing and singing on cafeteria tables, nobody broke out into song in the middle of a basketball game, high school wasn’t easy.

High school was a grind that challenged our notions of time and persistence. There were days when we muscled through school on fewer than four hours of sleep and days when we didn’t have time to prepare for a test and had to “wing it.”

But there were also days when we would chuckle while Mr. Dickson fumed over his defeat in teacher basketball. There were days when we would watch Mr. Graham attempt to dance like us Gen Z’ers. In Ms. Tria’s class, we laughed at President Kennedy who told all of Berlin, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” which unintentionally translates to “I am a jelly donut.” In Ms. Macriagne’s class, we marveled at King Henry VIII’s monstrous appetite, consuming 13 meals a day. That, folks, is how you gain the freshman 15. And who could forget when our school went viral for calling teachers by their first names? Especially the time a student addressed our health teacher Mr. Millevoi as “Jim,” making him drop his example birth control pills in utter shock. The laughs, the hidden gems of knowledge, the intriguing teacher stories—these are our memories.

Four years later, we are finally graduating! Our high-school years have been unforgettable – from Leonardo DiCaprio FINALLY winning his Oscar to a dramatic change in presidency to the rise of several social movements. On January 1, 2017, many of us participated in the women’s march. On March 14, 2018, we walked out of Great Neck South and marched for our lives to protest gun violence. In just four years, our worlds changed exponentially. We have become activists, young scientists, burgeoning musicians, engineers, and athletic stars.

On this bittersweet occasion—bitter because you have to listen to me give this speech, and sweet because I’m almost done—I am reminded of a quote by Andy Bernard who says in The Office finale, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” We might not realize it now, but we are and have been living in the good old days. Over the next few years, we will go to college, get jobs and start careers. The past four years were good, but the next four will be gold. So live in the moment, appreciate all that is good, and cherish the present, because it will one day become “the good old days.”

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