Thomas Jefferson Highschool Commencement Speech Sid Muralidhar

Good evening, class of 2018 and proud families. I'm Nathan Chen, your class secretary.

And I'm Claude Karaki, your class treasurer.

We're here to introduce a man who needs no introduction.

But we'll do it anyway. Here with the president of the biggest club on campus, Sports statistics.

A two time MIT inspired national finalist in economics.

And last year, under my leadership, Sid and I won honorable mention at the Wharton International Investment competition.

And when Claude left the team and Sid became leader, he won the whole thing. First place in North America and first place global grand finale.

So without further ado, please help me welcome 2018's biggest idiot, Sidon.

Thank you, Nathan, for that kind introduction. Claude, you're going to regret that. I have to go to the bathroom. So I'm going to keep this short. I don't want to mess up my gown. Still need to sign out. Doctor Von Aches. Faculty, students, parents of students, parents of fifth graders seeking TJ admission. Tips. Not gonna get that here. And all of you who bought tickets to this because Bharajpuri told you this was I night. Welcome and congratulations to the class of 2018. Before I start, I want to say if you don't get a shout out in the speech, you're welcome. My job here today is to impart wisdom and give you life advice. Things I have zero qualifications for. I mean, I'm as qualified to do this job as the president is to do his. So this is gonn. Now some of you may be thinking, what is he doing up there? Every time I took his advice, the girl ended up hating me. Sorry about that plot. Now I know you shouldn't ask out a girl's service. That's my bad. My bad. Anyway, I'll keep the preaching to a minimum since I'm more qualified to deliver pizzas than I am to deliver this speech. I don't even have a driver's license. Listen, I just did this so my Indian parents would think I'm valedictorian. Sorry, mom. I came to lol. Last night, as I prepared for this huge speech, I. How do I write a graduation speech? Yes, you heard me. Bing. The number one search engine on the Internet. Bing. If I say enough times, they have to sponsor me, right? I've got college paperwork the same way we all completed physics webassigns. I found the answer to my question on Yahoo Answers. A good graduation speech contains words of wisdom, insights on how to be happy, life advice, ideas on how to be successful and what really matters in life. Unfortunately, Yagua Answers is a competitor thing. So I can't do any of that. So. I'm kidding. Okay. I'll try my best to hit on these five key points and it'll be the first time I've successfully hit on anything. Asahano. Let's rewind. A freshman year when it all began. We walked into those big steel watertight doors into a building with dangerously exposed electrical. We were stripped of our names and given a seven digit code to identify each of us. We were given only 40 minutes of freedom a day. And after that, we were back to being locked into mostly windowless rooms. Some of you may be thinking I'm describing a county prison. I am. For a while, I called this place tjo. This school was different. Instead of student filled football games, we had student filled math retakes. If the teachers had mercy. Instead of staying up late partying, we stayed up late googling, binging. Like, how do I write a research paper with three people I hate more than anything on earth? You see, TK differed from a regular high school because we rejected regular high school norms. Though. Now, differed and rejected means something completely different to all of us. But we were all in this together. Whether you're a Gabriel Montez, the brainiac, or a Troy Bolton or Sharpay Evans, 4 Sport varsity athlete, or the energetic drama student. Just kidding. Those don't exist at tj. Embrace what's different about you and don't adhere to the status quo like a Chad Danforth. Don't be a chad. Words of wisdom. Check. If you didn't catch the high school musical references, you're a Chad. Sophomore year, I lost my best friend to tj. For a while. I considered dropping out too. My grades were sleeping faster than FCPS students on a cold day. Close. FCPS chemistry was hard for most of us, especially. Especially chemistry with the other gender. Again, Claude, really sorry. But in spite of failing chemistry inside the classroom, we were killing it outside the classroom. This was the year we really fortified those friendships that would last the rest of our sentence. I mean years. When our grades went low, our friends got high. Oh, sorry, Sorry. When our grades went low, our friends got our spirits high. A lot of you know, I met the love of my life at tj. I spent hours thinking about them and even wrote a song about them. Just thinking of them would make me smile. So thank you to the apple in my eye, Praneet Nadapali. If you don't have a friend like that, hit up Paul Karaki. He's really lonely. How to be happy? Check. Going back to chemistry for a Second in the first quarter of chemistry. And this is a true story. I had a higher grade than even Shwetar could tell. For those of you who don't know Shwetar, he skipped senior year to go to mit, So I was basically on that track. Don't laugh. It's not a joke. I was really enjoying chemistry. So one day I decided to go to our chem teacher and just confess my love for chemistry. I said, I have a deep passion for chemistry. Everything just seems to click. I want to be a chemist. And she looked me in the eye and she said something to me that I will never forget. And to this day, I still think about. She said, if you don't get out of my class right Now, I'm calling Mr. Frank. At the time, I didn't know who Mr. Frank was, but I would soon get to know our assistant vice principal very well. Junior year, however, I discovered behavioral economics, a combination of psychology and economics, a subject so intricate, so technical, my counselor asked me in our college sit down. Is this a real major? But I was motivated by inspirational teachers like Dr. Montegradi and Ms. Earth to put their roots in this non stem passion. And with the help of Emerson Berlick and Joshua Habermel, I created an app. But I'm no genius. I probably rank in the bottom 10% in terms of intellect. My SAT score was my IQ and my IQ was the average on an AP physics test. You do the math or ask Scott Egerton, because I can't. I just found what I love and someone who could actually code. Do you guys remember J. Carroll? Carroll was like a bad Russian girlfriend to me. He would never do what I wanted him to. He was always bugging me. And even after years and years of study, it was in a language I didn't understand. My point is, we arrived at TJ with a set idea about our life goals and plans. And after tj, we have a better idea about what's next, but still no idea where that path will lead us. Kem taught me that mixing chemicals was just unsafe for everyone around me, but that I had a future of William and Mary. So go find what you enjoy, what you're good at and put your full effort into it. And if you get stuck, go find your Emerson. Follow your dreams, but don't be afraid to dish them from bedroins. I mean, I ditched science for a social science and look where I am now. Bad example. Anyway, life advice and ideas on how to be successful. Shit. Over the last four years, I created a club for fantasy football. Shout out, Charlie. Mr. Hill. I helped organize over 25 different aspens, Mercedes, Prom and Hoko no Suchet. Hoko doesn't stand for honor code. I visited Danny McRae's cousin in Russia. I went to prom with Viraj Praneet and Divya Shahn. I became best friends with a true Indian immigrant, Arnab Mehra. And when Nathan came back from his extended absence, I ripped off my pants and all you cheered me on. Who knew the tj? TJ would encourage me to pursue the striping. Though not academic, these are the achievements I am most proud of. At another school, I would have been called a loser. Not here. But TJ didn't create the atmosphere for me to accomplish these things. You guys did. Everything we did, we did. Together, we stormed the field. Sorry. We stormed the track for our first varsity football win since 2012. Together, we protested on Capitol Hill. Together, we raised 4.5K for hurricane relief in Houston and Puerto Rico in two days. Together. Two days. And we didn't need our mommies to give us any money. Teamwork. Now that's what really matters in life. Check. So class of 2018. We did it. We worked really hard for four years to get to this point. Well, most of us. You. Most of you worked really hard to get to this point. But hey, we all ended up with the same piece of paper. So who's laughing now? Unless you got independent like one more Caltech, like Andrew Butler or cmu like Barack or any ivy. I actually got into an ivy. Poison Ivy. And now I've got this really bad rap. So if any of you pre meds intern with a good doctor, please hit me up. To conclude, don't be afraid to embrace your uniqueness, find what you're good at, what you love and pursue a passionately. You made friendships that will last night turn baby. And never forget you're part of an amazing experience that you'll look back later on in life and tell your kids. I served four years for being under the influence of amazing parents and teachers and for possession of great knowledge with the intent to distribute to all those around me. Most importantly, never be a Chad. Be a caught. The most well dressed guy you'll ever meet, the nicest guy and the best sport. All this in spite of not talking to any girls. Now try giving me a better speech than this. You can't. And that's why I use pain. Thank you 2018. Good night, good luck and I'm going to need a sign up sheet and a new gown right now.