Good afternoon, everyone — families, teachers, administrators, esteemed guests, and my fellow graduates.
Before anything else, I want to begin with gratitude.
To our parents and families: thank you for every sacrifice you made to get us here. The rides, the reminders, the patience, the support.
To our teachers, counselors, coaches, and staff: thank you for guiding us and believing in us even when we didn’t fully believe in ourselves. You didn’t just teach us English, math, science, foreign language, arts, or theology. You taught us how to think, how to care about our work, and how to keep going when things got difficult.
And to my classmates: thank you for making these years meaningful. We grew up together through Klinge homework, laughter, Dr. Burdziak moments, inside jokes, and the countless other memories we shared.
Today is a celebration of all of that — our individual achievement, but more so the community that carried us here.
And now: congratulations to the Archmere Class of 2026. We made it.
Which is honestly impressive, considering the past four years somehow managed to feel both incredibly long and unbelievably short at the same time.
We survived long exam weeks, last-minute research papers, physics in general, and Sage Dining’s monopoly of the Archmere food scene.
Give yourselves a round of applause.
Honestly, Archmere shaped us in ways we probably won’t fully understand until years from now.
The countless extra hours our teachers put in for us. Mornings walking through these halls half awake in the morning, rushing to finish homework before class, hearing the bell and somehow still being late anyway.
It’s Saturday football games. Insane Spirit Week getups. Kairos. Pep rallies. Senior sunrise and sunset. Sitting at lunch with the same people every day without realizing those moments were quietly becoming memories.
It’s teachers who challenged us because they knew we were capable of more than we thought. And it’s the feeling that, no matter how stressful things became, there was always someone here willing to help.
These things gave us a shared language. People to look for in the hallways. They made us feel like we belonged to something before we even knew how much that mattered.
That’s rare. And I hope we never take it for granted.
Now, like many of you, I’m both excited and slightly terrified about what comes next.
Over the past few months, I’ve asked teachers, parents, and older students every question imaginable.
What major should I choose?
Which courses should I take?
How do I prepare for college?
After all that, there are two pieces of advice I’d like to share today.
The first:
Everyone tells us college is where you meet new people and make new friends.
You’ll be surrounded by people who are similar to you and completely different from you at the same time. Some will challenge you. Some will inspire you. Some will microwave fish in a shared kitchen at 2 a.m.
In fact, someone recently gave me a Kindle book called The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College.
Which is somehow both reassuring and deeply concerning.
I guess growth in college comes in many forms.
But here is the one thing every single one of us will experience:
We are all going to meet a crazy roommate.
And if you don’t…
You are probably the crazy one.
Now for the more serious advice.
I hope we can stay optimistic.
I know that’s a big ask.
For years now, it feels like our generation has constantly been told what’s wrong with us. Every few months there’s a new headline explaining why we’re supposedly doomed.
We grew up during a pandemic, in the middle of constant technological change, and now in the age of artificial intelligence.
And honestly, AI shows just how quickly the world is changing. Not long ago, it was “absolutely no ChatGPT.” Now even some of our classes use AI as part of learning.
And after all the SATs, AP classes, extracurriculars, essays, interviews, recommendation letters, and stress, suddenly we’re told college might not even matter anymore because of AI. In short, we’re cooked.
At this point, some of our career plans are basically:
“Gee! Hopefully the robots are hiring supervisors.”
But I think we should stay optimistic.
We will adapt. Every generation has faced change they didn’t fully understand at first. Ours will too.
And the things that matter most about us — curiosity, empathy, creativity, humor, friendship — are still human things.
So, despite everything people say about our generation, I think we turned out pretty fine.
We don’t have everything figured out, but we’re still learning. Still growing. Still becoming who we’re going to be.
I think Archmere prepared us better than we realize: it may not have given us every answer, but it taught us how to face uncertainty with courage, kindness, and faith in each other.
Maybe we aren’t as cooked as people say.
Maybe we’re the ones doing the cooking. Congratulations, Archmere Class of 2026.
