Paulo Pereira Filho is the class essayist (ranked third in the class) for the graduating class of MVRHS. He gave this speech as part of the ceremony on Sunday.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Today, I am honored to stand before our distinguished faculty, administrators, friends and family, and the Class of 2017.

This speech was written in dedication of the below mentioned people. This is for my parents, who taught me how to dream hard and work even harder. This is for my brother, educators, mentors, peers and friends, who challenged me and believed in me. This is for every hand that helped me get to this point in my life. This is for the student who spends hours daydreaming of going to college and getting a higher education. As I was once that student.

I moved to the United States when I was three years old, and began my quest to become an American by overcoming hardships and working hard in school in order to be successful in this foreign land. Navigating between these two cultures shaped me into the person I am today and made me a strong and resilient person, and I am now making one of my dreams of going to college a reality. But, no matter how similar or different our dreams may be, we all had to overcome the same obstacle to get to today. A diagnosis that none of us could have prepared for.

As we speak, an epidemic is sweeping the nation, affecting thousands of high school seniors every year, viciously destroying motivation and performance. What I’ve described to you is a contagious disease known as senioritis. Other symptoms include laziness and irrational cravings to go to the beach and severe narcolepsy. Students aren’t the only victims. Parents and teachers alike have been afflicted by this terrible disease. But today I have good news, I’ve found the cure and you all will find out what it is at the end of my speech.

Jokes aside, I’d like to take a moment to recap the four years that we’ve had together as a class. Freshman year was a blur. The next year was sophomore year, but nobody cares about that, so moving on. Junior year, the year where we all wanted to bang our heads on the walls we called standardized testing. And, finally that brings us to senior year, where we cheered over good news together and cried over tragedies together.

I hope that you’ll use what you’ve been given here, a broad public school education, to communicate with the humanity, compassion and collective intelligence of the world. As said by Alex Urban, “Wherever you go, walk with purpose, like there’s somewhere you have to be. Walk with importance, like you are someone people should already know. Walk with pride because those are the people that others are going to follow.”

Most importantly put your best foot forward in every endeavor that you do. Do things well, but then again don’t do things too well or it may backfire and you may be forced to give a speech in front of a crowd of over a thousand people.

I will try my best to keep this next part short and sweet, because this is usually the part where everyone tends to zone out. After today, after graduation, it’s not going to get any easier. As Julian Huguet once said, “You’re going to have failures but in the same way you’re going to have success. Just remember that all of it is temporary. Nothing terrible lasts forever, so hang in there. And nothing worthwhile is permanent, so hang on to it.”

When times are tough look to your loved ones, who are here today supporting you, because they’re the ones who are going to help you get through it. And when times are good, look to those same people because they’re the ones who make life worth living.

Graduates, you are all destined for greatness. Each and every one of you has the potential to change the world. You have all grown into powerful, intellectual individuals who will make a massive footprint on this earth. Tables turn, bridges burn, you live and learn, and often times it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination. So, as we part ways equipped with priceless knowledge, we embark on a life sure to be filled with challenges and success. While the idea of materialistic success does influence our lives heavily, I ask that you follow your dreams and do what makes you happy. Class, strive to be the best version of yourself. Fly through the turbulence and live life because you are a warrior. As Eric Thomas once put it, “Be phenomenal or be forgotten.”

I would like to leave you all with the words of H. Jackson Brown, Jr. “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Thank you.

And for the only known cure to senioritis... Graduation! Congratulations, Class of 2017!