an ode to audino, mostly...
so i was thinking/reading about censorship, etc, &the fabulous run-through with ms. ireland came to mind. yup. so i opened up googledocs, scrolled past the edited versions, &control-c'd it up...feeling kinda b.a. all the while.
so now, ladies &gentlemen, for the first time ever:
the graduation speech of katie, maggie, &aly - uncensored.
*for you non-morganhillbillies, read the bold faced print in the voice of the ex-cheerleader/purse-sales woman from the office (the girl jim takes on the "cruise" with him..."AAA-w-EE, SSS-O-m-e...") -she's also in enchanted...amy adams? only louder, &maybe more squeaky,
&read the italics like you're either asking a question or talking on the phone to your parents about how you're going to miss curfew again...
&start off reading the regular font like you're about to fall off the stage, like you know audino's going to kill you if she ever gets wind of this, like you really really regret wearing your hair in pigtails... but then toss in some super-spirit-lifting uproarious laughter after most of those lines, &with that have the voice in your head grow in confidence as the speech progresses...
*(fellow sobrato-ites, i love you guys so so much for that, seriously...)
...&know that i'm a horribly bitter person, &feel like throwing it out there: yes, i did write the whole thing, unaided.
(&yes, for the most part, the three of us did share the credit...)
but anyways. the speech - uncensored.
duhn-duhduh-duhhhnnn!
These past four years, adults from all areas of our lives berated us daily for wasting our time. And truthfully, I can kind of see where they were coming from. I can see it in how we obsessed over talent-less celebrities and fried and dyed our hair until we looked at least something like them. In how we stayed up all night perfecting assignments that would already have earned us full credit pages ago. In how we sat through hours of humanities lectures on power plants and special force units…no matter what the actual subject of the class was. In how everyday we came home from the actual community of our student body, logged on to Facebook, &realized that the entirety of that very network was online as well…Yeah, I can see what they meant. But honestly, in the words of Arcade Fire, “If I could have it back, all this time that I’ve wasted, I’d only waste it again.”
This so-called “waste of life” has been our high school experience; it’s been our way rebelling, relaxing, competing. It’s what’s shaped us, inspired us, forced us to chase even harder and value even higher the moments of actual, undeniable fun, and to see in every second the potential amusement hidden therein. And I wouldn’t change one minute of it.
Except maybe that’s not completely true. As I look out at all of you, I realize that I’m graduating with more than a handful of people to whom I’ve never once said a word, even some whose names escape me, and who probably don’t even recognize my face. I would change that.
So for those of you I don’t know, if you’re anything like the incredible people I have been honored to befriend, if you know how to take any situation or habit, no matter how monotonous, and turn it in to something unforgettable, something infectious and fresh, then I’m sorry we’ve never met, but I know I needn’t even wish you luck in your future, you’ve got it.
We’re the class of two thousand eleven: that’s lucky enough. We animate and inspire, encourage and excite. Whatever the future holds, I know we’ll make the most of it: we’ll waste every second in the most beautiful way possible. Our future is bright, not because life is never boring, but because we don’t know how to be bored. For some, the road ahead might be straight, steady, dull, but throw in our perpetual fire, and Yoda’s adage stands: always in motion is our future.
So thank you, Sobrato, for the lessons on integrals, stock markets, and our fluffy, marshmallow biases, but know that what we take away in full is that excitement for life: that ability to find laughter in all things mundane, that impenetrable smile – the mark of the fabulous class of two thousand eleven.
*in our actual speech, we replaced the beginning part with a stupid (redundant) spiel about how we make the most of every moment, even when life isn't one big show...
&then we walked out to "the show goes on all night,"
which personally i found hilarious, &just.
