If you’re sitting here thinking that time has flown by quickly, remember that eleven years from now, we’ll be twenty-nine. By then, some of us might be married or may already have children. Some will be finishing residency or law school, building companies, traveling the world. Some will live in big cities, in small towns, and possibly even different countries. Some of us still might not know exactly who we want to become. But maybe that’s okay too.
Recently, it came to my attention that people were shocked I was an avid reader. I tend to read outside of school assignments, my C block English class has unfortunately become a victim of my competitiveness when it comes to books. And while I do read a lot, it may come as less of a shock to know I also watch a lot of movies and TV shows, I own a lot of fashion magazines, and I listen to an alarming amount of music.
But no matter how differently we consume media, I’m positive that every person in this room has heard the phrase “you only live once.” However, for me, through reading, I’ve gotten the opportunity to live a thousand times. I’ve been an old Hollywood star in the 60s, an Olympian in the 90s, an FBI agent, a prisoner of war, a hero, and a villain. I’ve traveled to places like Paris, China, Russia, and India. Thanks to C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, I’ve been to Heaven and through Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit, I’ve visited Hell.
Through it all, I’ve learned there is no one right way to live.
One book that the senior class has become particularly familiar with is Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Throughout the novel, Siddhartha spends his life chasing enlightenment through religion, discipline, wealth, and love. Yet each time he reaches what he thought would satisfy him, he is left searching again, realizing that fulfillment cannot be achieved through a perfectly structured path. Life is not something you fully understand once you reach a destination; it is something you learn by living it, not by planning every step of it.
Personally, I struggled with this idea because the “correct way” to live has always been to plan and stick to my goals. To my family and friends who have seen my messy room and my relationship with procrastination, I understand I don’t exactly seem like the organized type. Nevertheless, perhaps due to my chronic overthinking, I’ve mapped out exactly which degrees I’ll have at exactly which universities, the places I’ll live, the languages I’ll speak, what jobs I’ll have and when I’ll have them.
Over time, I’ve become very envious of the people who have no idea any of those things. People who live in the moment, rather than obsess over their next goal to conquer. Oscar Wilde said, "If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be…if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know, you will never become anything, and that is your reward."
Perhaps uncertainty is not a sign that we’re behind. For the first time, the Class of 2026 is stepping into lives that belong entirely to us. And while that freedom can be terrifying, it’s also beautiful. Because despite every plan we’ve made for ourselves, there are still people we haven’t met yet, places we haven’t seen, passions we haven’t discovered, and versions of ourselves we cannot even imagine right now.
When we’re almost thirty, maybe none of our lives will look the way we imagined they would while sitting here tonight. But I hope that somewhere, in whatever cities or countries or lives we end up in, we still carry little pieces of this place and each other with us.
As we leave here tonight, I want each of you to remember something important: we are prepared for that future, even if we cannot fully picture it yet.
So tonight, I want to thank the people who helped us become who we are — and the people who will continue helping us become who we are yet to be.
For eleven years, Randolph has prepared us not just for college, but for life. We walked into this school as children who had no idea who we would become, and now we leave understanding that maybe no one ever fully knows. But Randolph has shaped us into people capable of adapting, learning, failing, changing, and trying again — and because of that, we have all the right tools to figure it out.
So remember, have courage and be kind. Whenever you find your life not going according to plan, embrace it. And whenever the world starts to feel too small, just pick up a book and live another life.