“The Bubble”
Once a panther always a panther… is not how this speech is going to go today. For the past four years we have resided within a bubble of normalcy and routine where high school was one of many constants. In a few minutes, however, when we simply become Snohomish graduates, we will have the opportunity to part many of those constants by popping our bubbles of familiarity,
and I want to talk about what that means.
Throughout my time at SHS I have woken up some days feeling like Nelson Mandela who contends, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” and, on other days, I’ve felt more like Ferris Bueler who exclaims, “it’s a beautiful day. How can I be expected to handle high school?” Although high school has been at time trying, it has also been a safety net where many of us haven’t had the opportunity or haven’t been pushed to step outside of our bubble of normalcy. Personally, I was fortunate to take a step out of my bubble through a club on campus that is very special to me, Speech and Debate.
Since my freshman year I have spent nearly every weekend between October and March debating everyone’s favorite topic… politics. I’ve had to debate everything from serious and difficult topics like “Cheetos are better than Doritos”…to more lighthearted stuff, like federal tax reform. Debate made me argue in favor of things I was against and about issues that may never affect my life in Snohomish. It gave me a new perspective on what it means to be privileged by teaching me the struggles of people across the globe and, it showed me what it means to respect my peer’s opinions. More than anything else, however, it made me realize that there are many difficult issues well outside of our bubbles that we may soon be forced to confront.
At SHS in particular, we have been fortunate to exist in a tiny bubble filled with community and tradition and antiques…and the inescapable scent of cow manure. However, when we leave here to today, and start “adulting”, each of you will have the choice to pop your bubble or not.
As independent individuals, you can choose to avoid the difficult topics, have one sided views, and ignore the bigger picture, or you can take your panther values and, as Larry the Cable guy so eloquently put it, “get er’ done” when forced to confront problems you don’t want to. You can become apathetic and stay in your bubble, or you can become invested in the larger world around you and burst it, something I think every panther sitting before me can do.
Author Kurt Vonnegut once said, “True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.” I don’t believe him. While tomorrow we may not be panthers, our class shares a set of panther values that I believe can change the world around us, yet only if we step outside of our comfort zones to share them. So, when each of you wake up tomorrow, I want you to take a deep breath because you never have to “high school” again, and then make a choice to stay in your bubble or to pop it. Thank you.
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