Wisdom of the young

By Ava Murphy, valedictorian

Good evening, fellow graduates.

Today we celebrate the culmination of all of our hard work, and I am proud of every one of us for this momentous achievement.

Before I continue, I would like to extend the utmost gratitude on the behalf of the Class of 2024 to each administrator, educator, staff member, family member and friend who has helped us reach this point. None of us would be here today without your dedication and support, and our achievements are as much yours as they are our own.

In the time leading up to this day, I would imagine many of us have thought often about success, between the successes we hoped to achieve this year and the success we hope to find in our future endeavors.

Today, many of us mark our current successes with the cords and stoles that hang around our necks or with the names of universities we plan to attend adorning the tops of our caps. Simply being here today, wearing these caps and gowns, is itself a great success.

When we entered this school, it was through Google Meets joined from the confines of our homes, and many of us lacked motivation, enthusiasm and, most of all, human connection.

Back then, I would have told you that it is, in fact, by one’s cords and stoles on their graduation day that you could determine one’s success. Today, however, I realize I had been wrong.

I now mark my success by the relationships I have forged these past years. The friends we have known since kindergarten and even earlier with whom we are still close today; the friends we have made in shared classes; and the friends we made by being part of sports teams, performing and visual arts programs, and after-school clubs.

The teachers of primary academic subjects; the teachers of electives and physical education classes; and the guidance counselors, coaches, band directors and club supervisors.

It is connections with these people that will impact us for much longer than any certificates or trophies we may have earned. Our bonds with these people are the truest measures of our success as human beings.

In fact, I believe it is these relationships with friends and mentors that have lent themselves to the successes we have found in classrooms and extracurriculars the past few years.

I can say with confidence that I would not be standing before you all today if it was not for the support of the people around me. My teachers and band directors have taught me so many skills and helped me grow so much as a student and person.

My family has supported me unconditionally in every endeavor I have pursued, and my friends have made me enjoy coming to school every day and have studied with me and worked with me on so many group projects.

I have to shout out our salutatorian, Colin, who I am proud to call one of my friends. Whether it was working together on chemistry and physics labs, proofreading each others’ English essays, or practicing saxophone together, our friendship is a testament to how having connections with others can often aid one in achieving success.

We may never again sit in the same classrooms, play together on the same sports teams or sit at the same lunch table, but we do all share this common experience as students at West Milford High School.

We exit this school with fragments of the people we have known, that come together to form the mosaic of who we are. Maybe your favorite song or movie is one that a friend recommended for you; maybe you joined a club or sport because of a friend and developed a passion for that activity; maybe you keep a list in your Notes app of funny quotes that a friend or teacher has said.

Our shared history becomes part of who we are as people, and we would all do well to appreciate the connections we have made with others.

Congratulations again, Class of 2024! Thank you.

By Colin Iwaszczuk, salutatorian

Well hello there, my friends! Hello there, families; hello there, teachers, staff, administration and anyone else who might be listening in on this little ceremony.

I figured I’d start off with a bit of thanks to you all, but first, just for a second - don’t worry I’ll get back to you guys - just take a second with me to step back. Just ... take a moment. Woah.

Last time we had one of these, it was like what? Six years or so? I was about 12, I mean I can’t remember that far back for the life of me. Damn you Covid!

It has been one heck of a journey to these seats. I hope you all at some point can truly realize how much of an accomplishment this is just to be sitting out on that field.

I mean each one of you has got about 18 years or so of life behind you. Triumph, turmoil, joy and sorrow. 18 years of it.

I’m a numbers guy, and that’s collectively, adding it all together, 5 millennia of individual experiences. Dare I say 1.9 million days.

Now here’s another pretty interesting stat for you: 80,000 people. For those of you who’ve been, that’s MetLife Stadium’s max capacity. It’s three time the population of West Milford. It’s like a fraction of the people who work at Amazon though; I looked that up: 1.6 million.

And it’s also less than 0.00001% of the world’s population. Anyway, 80,000 people. Considering that the average human lifespan is around 78 years, and that you continually meet three new people every single day of your life. Taking out the first five or so years, of course, you will meet 80,000 people. In your entire life.

For every single person you’d have a conversation with, there’s 100,000 that you won’t even see. And even then, that’s an overestimate. So what am I getting at here? What’s the point?

It’s connection. This little invisible thing called connection that makes all of this possible. These little threads that have pulled and shaped you all since the minute you left the womb.

The threads that grow into bonds and bonds that form families, whether families of blood or families of love, it is connection. Connection in your closest friend, in the person you happen to be sitting next to on this very field. Connection to the stranger you smiled at for no apparent reason. 80,000 people.

Each meeting is like adding another wire to the motherboard of your brain, whether good or bad. And here is my delayed thanks to those of you listening, to this school’s teachers for giving us those good wires that we need to function in the world and the staff and administration for allowing them to foster such incredible connections.

And to the parents and guardians who have raised us and guided us and provided us with the most important connection of all: love.

We are all some sort of incredible collage of the people we meet, stories, each written by a pen of those 80,000 inks. And you all are the reason that the stories you see in front of you will be masterpieces.

And so, Class of 2024, I’ll ask you. What do you want your connections to look like? What impact will you have on your 80,000?

Because while it may be a small fraction of our population, the people that you connect with can bring endless joy and love to your life. I am not some changed man, not some speaker of perfection, I have hurt and left bad tastes in the mouths of many.

But I will be damned if I am not doing my best to leave more good than bad in this world. And I have just enough faith in the human race to believe that I am in the majority.

Now I can’t come up to this podium and pull some profound revelation out of my back pocket that completely changes the way you all live your lives; it’s just not something I’m capable of.

But maybe, just maybe, I can make you aware of your past, present and future connections. Appreciate them just the smallest bit more. The power of a strong bond is truly infinite.

So thank you graduating Class of 2024 for giving so much positivity to the world around you. May you all continue to leave the people in your lives a bit better off than they were before. Godspeed to you all.