Graduation Speech: Genius

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Good evening class of 2013 and all of our proud supporters. I come before you tonight with bittersweet feelings about this event. On the one hand we are celebrating a momentous achievement and a symbol of our movement into a new phase of life. On the other hand, we have to spend more than five hours in this arena full of memories of the past four song contests. I’m sure we can all agree that of the entire class, probably the only one with really fond memories of this place is wrestling state champion Jamin Meletia.

Nevertheless, I know this is a truly special event, and I would like for all of us to remember it far more than any song contest defeat. So here begins my real speech…

Tonight I want to talk about genius. When the typical person thinks of genius, the first thing that comes to his or her mind is generally an image of a physicist like Albert Einstein or maybe even a math genius like David Choy. However, over the years I have come to extend my definition of genius.

First off, I extended it to sports. Sportscasters talk of the genius of Lebron James or Roger Federer. I mean all of us know the sports geniuses: Kekoa Taparra, Kanani Herring, TJ Kua, Zane Dydasco, Mike Hoke…. All of these people demonstrate amazing genius in their respective sports. Fortunately for us non-future pro athletes, life isn’t only about sports.

Genius comes in still other forms. One particular example comes to my mind. I was having the hardest time pulling out a weed during our senior service project in Kokua Valley. I tugged and tugged, but the stupid weed seemed invincible. I was just at the point of giving up when one of my fellow classmates showed me yet another form of genius. He pulled out a pocketknife and helped me to cut the weed preventing indigenous plants from growing in the area. My initial response was, “Man, that kid must be imo.” However, after looking at the mutilated weed for a while, I realized that no, this kid is not imo. He’s a genius. Joshua McBrayer epitomized the Boy Scout motto, and I thank him both for killing the weed and further expanding my definition of genius.

As

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