2026 Salutatorian Address
It has often been remarked that the class behind me, the class of 2026, is one of the tightest classes to pass through Ridgeview. And that's no accident. Sure, we've had our cliques, our friend groups, our folks who don't fit in exactly as people wanted them to. But on the whole, we have been ONE CLASS, UNITED in our educational journey. That speaks to a deeper truth about education: it is not a zero-sum game. Someone might look at me, salutatorian, and say "ah, he got second place" (in fact, I’ve already gotten that one). But in a true education, in a good school, there is no such thing as victory. And there is certainly no such thing as victory at other's expense.
It is strange to me that high-school education is so often portrayed as being cutthroat, almost political or hunger-games-esque. Our media is full of competitiveness, of bullying and greed and lust and angst over some intangible win. In reality, the times I have flourished most have been the times I have united with my class mates, set my own pride and "place" aside, and extended a hand of friendship, of learning, so as to say "let us both grow stronger for what we shall go through." Nay, arguably the only way to learn is by sharing it with others. Teachers share their knowledge with us, but they see their greatest success when we share with them. To teach is the greatest way to learn. A teacher who requires her students to compete for her attention is nothing short of a roadblock to us all. Education is not a competition: it is a journey we all set out on, and only by our combined efforts will we at last arrive.
We have arrived. Tired, dirty, sweat stained and reeking of the road (and not just from the Ruck), the class of 2026 has finished its long walk. It has been through our unity, our camaraderie, our combined strength, that we have succeeded where else we might have fallen. And it is that unity we must, must, must take with us. On this the eve of the 250th anniversary of our country, we are a people wracked by division; division caused by greed, by selfishness, by pride. I, like my classmates, wrote a senior thesis, and in that thesis I explicitly placed that division as one of the greatest challenges this generation will face. As we graduate, as we step out into the world, we as students must recognize we are the future. And as the future, we must set aside those vices, those comfortable retreats, and roll up our sleeves for the coming work. Just as we have throughout our education, we must prepare ourselves to work together. Because neither life nor education is a zero-sum game. They are cooperative, “won” only by the combined efforts of all the players. Therefore, as we celebrate our new roles as adults, we must stand, and say to one another "our victory will not be by my hands or yours alone. It will be won by one people, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The future lies in the hands of those who will live it: the people of now." Let me introduce you to those people, the class of 2026.
