Good morning, afternoon, or evening — whenever you may be watching this. Congratulations to my classmates and fellow high school graduates. And thank you to all families, friends, teachers, guests for “being here,” which I suppose now means not skipping through this part of the video.

When I think of high school, the first thing that comes to mind is the people I’ve passed the last 4 years with. Imagine one of your favorite memories from high school. What was going on around you? How did you feel? Who was with you? Now imagine the same event, activity, whatever it may have been except now you are alone. I think most of us will find the most notable experiences we’ve had depended on who we shared them with more so than whatever was actually happening. That being said, I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the people that made my memories over the last 4 years. I think you all know who you are, but I wouldn’t be who I am today if not for my friends, teachers, and family.

As a class, the little everyday moments we spent together are what stick out to me. Sitting in the commons with friends each morning. Teachers saying “hi” in the hallways. Team warm-ups at sports practices and school dances. I’m sure we all have scraps of the last four years that will stick with us. Some of these memories we share. From EGO day to our last day of school on Friday the 13th we really have spent a significant amount of time together. I wasn’t going to talk about our current situation, but a part of me knows this speech would be incomplete without acknowledging the fact that we aren’t sitting in rows on the field today as we always expected to be. The reason I bring up the memories we share is that when we look back on high school, we will all see this period of time — to some extent — similarly. In that way we will be together even as reality holds us at a distance.

Now I’m not going to give you all some profound advice because I don’t know any more than any of you do. I’m not going to talk about how much we’re going to miss Lyme-Old Lyme High School because, whether or not that’s even true, I don't think anyone wants to hear about it. What I can do is share something that really had an impact on me in the last four years.

I think a lot of you know this about me, but robotics has been basically my whole life for most of the last three years. That being said, a little-known story is that of how I got there. I remember the first robotics meeting I ever went to. I think it’s interesting that I don't quite remember what convinced me to show up to that meeting. I remember I was late because I'd come straight from a cross country meet so I stood at the back of Mr. Derry’s room listening to current team members speak to their experiences. They concluded the meeting by explaining the extent of the time commitment robotics requires. That it’s not like the clubs that meet for 15 minutes once a week and it isn’t for everybody. I remember wondering how long I'd last on the team. I doubted whether I’d be up for the commitment and the effort, but look where I ended up.

I’ve poured more hours than I could count into robotics and enjoyed (almost) every single one. I will always be grateful for the experiences I’ve had and the people I’ve met because I went to that first robotics meeting, and a second meeting, and many more to follow. I think something we could all do to remember as we move out of the familiar bubble of Lyme-Old Lyme High School is the importance of trying new things and seeing what sticks. You could end up finding your people in a group you never even quite planned to join. So that’s my little bit of advice for us, myself included, to try to remember to put ourselves out there.

And with that, I wish the best of luck to all my classmates in whatever the future may hold for you. Thank you.

(Emily Speckhals is the Salutatorian of Lyme-Old Lyme High School.)