'Our achievements stand clearly before us': Somers High School Valedictorian Aiden DiSiena addresses the Class of 2026

SOMERS, N.Y. - Before Somers High School's Class of 2026 took the next step into their future, they heard remarks from Valedictorian Aiden DiSiena:

"Before I begin, I'd like to take a moment to express my appreciation to everyone who has supported me throughout school and everything outside of it. My teachers, for challenging the way I think; my friends, for always sticking by me, even as we grew older; my mom and dad, for nurturing my passions; Peyton, for being my role model; and Eli, for reviving the part of myself that I thought I had lost forever. Thank you.

As we make our way out of high school life and plunge into the unknown, we can do our best to leave the past behind, but its impact on our educational and emotional selves cannot be overlooked. There are certain values we hold above others—those we believe have greater significance and strength. Yet the more focus we place on one isolated value, the more noise we create among the others.

One famous result of 20th-century quantum mechanics is Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which states that, as observers, humans can never precisely determine both the position and velocity of a particle at the same time. When we increase the accuracy of its position, we become more uncertain of its movement, and when we increase the accuracy of its velocity, we lose track of its location. This theory extends far beyond the bounds of physics, applying, in principle, to the values we place on ourselves in everyday life.

Being a student myself, I fell into the same pit of uncertainty—not with position and velocity, but with balancing the countless factors of my educational world. I unknowingly stumbled into the trap I thought I'd be avoiding—the one all too commonly encouraged: centralizing academics. It may seem counterintuitive for me, of all people, to be saying this, but don't take it as regret. There is nothing I would change about my years of learning. However, the noise remains, whether we see it or not. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle illustrates this idea: when values overlap and battle for your attention, they overshadow one another. I only realized what my own noise was hiding this year, looking back on all the social opportunities I had pushed away in favor of studying, only now seeing how alone I truly was.

This isn't a suggestion to neglect your education, but rather a word of advice for the future—even beyond your academic career. There's always the opposite end of uncertainty too, where learning is so heavily undervalued that it fades into the noise. In that mindset, we lose the ability to grow, improve, and push ourselves as individuals, existing only to assimilate among others, with the noise blinding us from ever becoming unique.

Balance was a word I couldn't fully grasp until now. It floated through conversations as if it held obvious meaning, while its true significance only confused me more. The reason I couldn't understand it was because I never had it. When I fixated on its meaning within such a narrow context, I couldn't see through the noise to look at life holistically. Balance isn't about evening your weight within a single, siloed value; it's about balancing your values to best reduce your uncertainty and the outside noise of everyday life.

And although much of the world remains inside that bubble of uncertainty, our achievements stand clearly before us, with those who have supported us most sitting in this audience. I would once again like to thank everyone who helped guide me through that noise, and I offer a heartfelt congratulations to the graduating class here today for proving the certainty of all our achievements."