James Wert ’25’s Commencement Speech

Hello, my name is James Wert, and I am honored to have been elected by my classmates to speak today. Speeches are very hard to write, especially intros. But I would like to start you off with a thank you: Not a single student walking this stage today has done it alone. Without a village of support from parents and guardians, friends, faculty, and staff, none of us would be here today.

Now without further ado, here are my body paragraphs. Don’t worry, I’ve been to a lot of these ceremonies, so I promise I won’t get too sentimental.

Friends, Family, Faculty, distinguished guests, indistinguishable guests, and the class of 2025, welcome. I’m very proud of all of you, including myself, for being here. Getting here today has not come without an immense amount of effort sustained over a decade and a half of showing up to school at 8am, and I want to recognize that as no small feat.

They say high school can chew you up and spit you out as a new person. And we have all witnessed that happen first hand, we’ve seen teachers get hired and retire, we’ve lost friends and made new ones. A wise man, I say a wise man because I haven’t bothered to look up who said it, Once said “the only thing that is constant, is change”. Change is all around, and there is not much you can do to stop it.

Now, I apologize, but I couldn’t resist the chance as an 18 year old to share some meaningful advice with a crowd of adults. I promise you, this section of my speech will be as long as I am qualified to offer said advice, not very.

Are you ready?

Steve Jobs once said that as we grow up, we tend to think the world is the way it is, that we live in worlds constructed by other people, but the real secret is that the world was made up by people no smarter than ourselves. Class of 2025, we are all capable of changing the world. We all have as much of a right as anybody else to build something, break something, or reinvent something. So as we continue to grow up, I urge you all to take action.

Start with your passion. Not “a passion”, I know the thought of figuring out what you want to commit your life to when you’re 18 can seem overwhelming, I’m talking about your passion, your capacity to be passionate. You may not know exactly what you want to chase, but I assure you, far more important is the desire to chase something. That energy inside us at this moment is the most powerful asset we have at our disposal. Pour that capacity for passion into everything in front of you and see what sticks.

When I was working on the Senior video this year, I interviewed teachers to ask them what they had to say to the graduating class of 2025. Dr. Green gave us all a piece of advice that seems to make sense of what I’m saying. He said, “Interest is a choice, so choose to be interested.” I think that is a choice that all the members of the class of 2025 have consciously made. We are leaving wheeler as artists, jazz virtuosos, underground rockstars, wheel throwers, game designers, college level athletes, nepsac champions, robotics champions, scientists, DJ’s, entrepreneurs, landscapers, sculptors, filmmakers, writers, actors, investment bankers, and most importantly as a class integral to the success of the wheeler community as a whole.

Okay, that was a long sentence, Michael you still with me?

We are now entering the conclusion of my speech, which means we are one step closer to the conclusion of the ceremony, which means we are one step closer to summer, meaning that we will be leaving high school behind. So, let’s all take a deep breath. we are here, we made it. Our tassels will be flipped to the other side, caps thrown, and we will begin just a few of the many many goodbyes this time of the year entails. But that hasn’t happened yet. Right now, you are sitting next to a classmate, a family member, a colleague, a stranger, or maybe my grandma. Regardless, we are all part of the wheeler community, a community that has uplifted every voice, expecting the very best but there for us at our worst.

I use the notes app on my phone to keep ideas that I think could be useful in the future, and on our first day of school, after Max and Sonia’s speech at our welcome assembly, I created a document titled grad speech. The first thing in that document is the words, “the pursuit of excellence in good company.” I promise you that I wasn’t aspiring for anything deep, but if any sentence could summarize my 15 years at Wheeler, it would be this. Class of 2025, today is about the people who made every step of the way a little easier, a little more fun, and a little brighter. Today is about you. For the last year we have seen and celebrated all of the excellence in our community, but today is about the good company. Thank you all for being such good company.

Thank you.