Paul: ‘Don’t take any moment for granted’

Good evening everyone. For those of you who have had classes with me you know that my presentations tend to run just a little long, but I promise you I’ll get to the point today. First things first, I’d like to take the time to thank my family, especially my mom Kelly and my dad Ed, for their constant support and motivation. Without a doubt, if it wasn’t for them and all the time and energy they invested into my education I couldn’t possibly be standing here today. Moreover, I want to thank my friends for always being there when I needed them; my teachers for all the work they’ve done throughout my time in school; our high school administrators, Dr. Hattar, the members of the board for investing so much of their time into our education; and you all for making my high school experience truly memorable. 

Standing up here today in front of you all truly is an honor; over the course of my thirteen years in the Yorktown school system I feel as though I’ve gotten to know at least a little bit about every one of you, and after each conversation I feel more and more grateful to have grown up here. In fact, delivering this speech had been a dream of mine for the last four years, both in terms of what it signifies and being able to bid farewell to this era of my life.  

However, in the last couple of weeks I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my time in high school, and in reality, this dream that I had been chasing for so long doesn’t even scratch the surface of the most important things to me. Rather, I find myself reminiscing about the smaller things: the hallway conversations, the time spent in the Crop, the opportunity to see all your friends everyday. These were the things that really mattered, yet at the moment I never paid them any mind. If I could go back and change things, I would, but sadly that’s something I’ll never have the chance to do. However, for all of us, this is the end of a chapter, yes, but there is still so much more ahead, so many more adventures to embark on. Personally, I know I’m going to try my absolute hardest to not lose track of those subtle things moving forward, and I implore all of you to do the same. 

This isn’t just something that only applies to high school either, it’s imbued in everything around us. Take the biggest sports craze New York has ever seen: the Knicks winning the NBA Finals less than a month ago. Watching the Yankees lose in the World Series, watching the Rangers lose in the Stanley Cup Finals, watching Notre Dame lose in the championship game, and watching the Jets well be the Jets every week, I wasn’t sure if I was ever gonna get the chance to see one of my teams win it all. Seriously, as I’m sure some of you know the pain of all too well, you’d watch the Jets choke away some game they had no business winning, and think well at least next week can’t get any worse, only for them to have negative ten passing yards the next game.  

Back to the Knicks though, 53 years, that’s a long time. For the fans it was a dark time filled with painful memories, yes, but in the midst of all that there were bright spots: from Linsanity to Melo coming home to NYC, these small victories often get overlooked when analyzing the era as a whole, but were pivotal in providing comfort and solace to a generation of fans. It’s the same experience that I had with high school, and the same experience that I’m sure you’ve all had countless times in your lives. Oftentimes, we don’t appreciate the good times we’re in. The focus is always on the bigger things that lie ahead. Statements like I can’t wait for this to happen; I can’t relax until this is taken care of; I can’t wait until next year, for us as students they are far too engrained in our daily vocabulary; the focus is always on the future, not right now. While all of these mindsets do provide motivation, which is obviously a great thing, at the same time they also dilute the present to the point that what once seemed to be of the utmost importance is now rendered unimportant. 

I still remember those long days where I had so much work to do, and I would just wish for the day to be over already, to take one step closer to being done with everything. Now, I wish I could take even just one step backward. Sure, it’s cliche, but they say life moves too fast for a reason. Every opportunity in life is special, not because of what it could give rise to in the future, but because it is a finite window where something is possible. Sure, new doors and possibilities open all the time, but they also close all the time as well. To live in the moment doesn’t just mean to enjoy the current events and surroundings; it means to truly value the current window of opportunity and to be aware of future prospects. And that, in short, is the biggest lesson high school ever possibly could have taught me, and the biggest reminder I could ever give you all. 

So often, it isn’t until the moment has passed that we realize how good we truly had it or how extensive the opportunities at our disposal were. However, that doesn’t have to be the case moving forward. Don’t take any moment for granted, as you never know when, and more importantly never know how, to prepare yourself for those moments to end. 

Once again, thank you to everyone gathered here today for making these last four years the best four years of my life. 

Read Paul’s entire speech at theyorktownnews.com