Nischal Tamang – Class OF 2024 Valedictorian

Unlocking Tomorrow: The Freedom of Moving Forward

Good morning EHS students, staff, family, and class of 2024. It is my honor and privilege to stand on this stage in front of this wonderful audience and give this speech.

First, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the EHS teachers and staff for helping my classmates and me overcome numerous obstacles and adversities throughout our journey and reach this point in life. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to my parents, who are the building blocks of my life. Ever since we moved to the US when my sister and I were 9 and 10, my parents have constantly supported us as we adapted and grew in a new environment. Like many proud parents and guardians in the stands today, they have made countless sacrifices in their lives to support us; whether it is leaving their lives in Nepal and starting from scratch in America with minimum English, or working 7 days a week for ten to twelve hours each day so that we could afford whatever we needed. It is thanks to their sacrifices and support that I am able to proudly stand here today, and it is their greatest lessons that they taught me that have built me into the individual that stands in front of you. So, this moment is not only mine but my father’s, who despite the pain aching labor and countless hours of overtime, always finds the right words to brighten the room with his hilarious nature, and my mother’s, whose kindness fills the room and makes me forget about all the adversities. Thank you both for being the best parents.

I would also like to thank the class of 2024 for sharing these past years of high school with me and creating unforgettable memories and building unbreakable bonds. It truly felt as if every one of my interactions with this group of students helped me gain a greater understanding of myself as well as the environment around me. This group of students is not only one of the smartest and most hard-working groups, but also one of the most resilient groups to have walked the halls of Everett High School. As we all know, Covid struck the US when this group of students were nearing the end of their eighth-grade year, and as a result, were forced to transition from middle school to high school through online classes in a time of great uncertainty and unrest. This was a rough start since online school was just a weird experience. Every student was just a black box with their name written on it, we weren’t able to physically talk to one another, (I mean I don’t count those Zoom breakout rooms since the students rarely unmuted their mics or turned their cameras on), and many high school activities such as sports and clubs were canceled. Even so, when school became in person again, we came into the school as excited as ever, eager to meet new friends, learn new topics, and try new things–like football in February and eating socially distant lunch in the gym. The resilience and optimism of our class helped us push forward through some of the greatest challenges that were thrown our way.

I don’t know if I can emphasize enough how supportive our teachers were throughout that year, and over these past four years as a whole. It is thanks to their passion for teaching and desire to assist and connect with their students that helped each one of us stay motivated, grow, and achieve our goals. The connections that we made with our teachers helped us look forward to a school day, even if we didn’t always love getting up in the morning. Whether it was spending the after school discussing the middle east in Mr. Bailey’s room, enacting the different scenes of Julius Caesar in Mr. O’s class, or bugging Mrs. Brogna for more Calculus help, these precious moments that we shared with our teachers motivated us to continue and revealed to us that there were more people uplifting us and wanting us to succeed. They believed in us, which helped us believe in ourselves.

However, I am not going to act like everything went right for everyone, every day. There are memories from these high school years that each one of us will hold dear in our hearts–but there are also those moments of regrets that will linger in the back of our minds. “I wish I had joined this sport or club,” “I wish I had talked to this person,” “I wish I had passed instead of shooting in that one game,” or “I wish I had taken that class more seriously.” No matter who you are, you are bound to have one of these “wishes” or regrets. But the truth is that these events of the past cannot be changed. As one saying goes “is it the past because it cannot be changed or can it not be changed because it is the past?” (I’m kidding, I made that saying up). But going back to the topic, I ask you, what is the point of looking back on these regrets if you can’t do anything about them? Well that’s why: because it is best to forget it and move on; unlock the tomorrow that awaits you and approach it with excitement and an open mind without the lingering thoughts of those regrets.

Luckily for us, this is the perfect moment to start approaching life with this new thought, because this is not only a graduation but the beginning of a new adventure, a new chapter of our life with an uncertain but exciting future. Whether you are attending college, enlisting in the military, attending a trade school, or something entirely different, a variety of new experiences and opportunities are waiting for each one of us. So, as you take your diploma today, I want each one of you to take this opportunity to leave those past regrets behind and to look forward to your future. I want your diploma to be a symbol of your promise to continue being resilient and move forward no matter the adversity thrown your way, to erase those regrets and embrace those opportunities that await us as we move forward into all of our tomorrows.

I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you.