Good afternoon fellow members of the class of 2023! Before I begin, I’d like to thank Dr. [Robert] O’Donnell and Associate Principal [Brian] Keating for their support, as well as all the school faculty who have made our experience at Wilton High School absolutely incredible.

Now, let’s look back for a second. In order to truly reflect on the four years we’ve spent at Wilton High School, we should return to where we began — our [Middlebrook School] Soaring Ahead ceremony, held right next door in the Field House, where our parents and friends cheered us on as we graduated from Middlebrook.

Then, we went outside and stood under a myriad of stars.

Tiny little pinpricks of light located thousands of light-years away, swarming the
blackness of space in a silent chorus of fiery heat. Though each star consists of plasma, they all burn their own colors and form incredible constellations.

Like those stars above, we each embody a unique mix of everyone who has impacted us so far. We’re an amalgamation of our moms who taught us to ride a bike, our dads who took us to our first baseball game, and our friends who we first met on the Miller-Driscoll or Cider Mill playgrounds. We’re a melange of the teachers who sacrificed countless hours instructing us on everything from the ABCs to Calculus III, merged with the amazing mentors who set us on the paths less traveled by and, therefore, made all the difference.

As we’ve grown up together, we’ve managed to overcome an unprecedented global
pandemic, suffered and reflected through community tragedy, and witnessed extraordinary world events. We’ve had our ups and downs, or as my Greek dad would say, our “anabases” and “katabases”, but we’ve grown from those moments and have become better people.

And now, we’re on our way into uncharted waters. As we leave today, we will start
navigating through the twists and turns of life; and once again, the night sky and its multiverse of stars will envelop us. Every single one of us lies in the cosmos above, shining brilliantly in our own way, illuminating your future and wishing you all the best; all you have to do is look up.

That’s what I did on the night I chose my future path. As the constellations slowly crept up outside my window and snuck into the void of the sky, I decided to write a poem to express my thoughts. And I ended it in the most fitting way I could — and I mean this for the entire Wilton High School Class of 2023:

“Life is not defined by what college
or degree or program you get,
But by those you surround yourself with –
And I’m happy to have been accepted by
the best people in the whole wide world.”

Congratulations to you all, and don’t forget to shoot for the stars!