A Speech for My High School
Our fear of having hard conversations only makes us more afraid
Let me just say this right out of the gate: I never wanted to give a fucking speech at my old high school.
That being said, I’ve had a public career, and this has led to some of the people I grew up with taking pride in me. It feels really nice. I run into people from my hometown and they tell me they’ve seen and are psyched about the stuff I’ve done. It’s cool. Flattering.
We’re all adults now. Any sense of high school drama is way behind us. It’s good to see that those of us who are still around grew into functioning human beings who got through the tough times we may have had. And to realize that the work I’ve put in over the years gets the respect of those I grew up with really means a lot.
A guy I graduated high school with, who’s always been super supportive of me, asked me why our school has never had me back to give a speech. Other people who have done public stuff have been asked to return with some words of wisdom for the students. I told him honestly that I didn’t know, and that I wasn’t really interested, anyway.
But he took it upon himself. He emailed them and asked.
I didn’t know he was doing this beforehand. But I got a kick out of it when he told me…
