today I want to talk about a few things
high school summer camp and how we spend
that time every summer I had to camp for
about a month and whether it’s
discussing our latest girl troubles or
speculating about the world around us
camp has opened up a lot of
conversations that have introduced us to
a lot of really interesting ideas this
past summer I was in a conversation with
the counselor discussing my various
grievances with school having just ended
my freshman year I was in a dark place
with the expectation many of us are
handed that we go through high school
mainly for academic purposes get good
grades go to college along the way using
our extracurriculars as a way to support
those goals and sometimes we fall short
of that and seeing the frustration in my
eyes at that moment she turned to me and
told me the story of how she got into
college applying the day before the
deadline to a school she never
considered she could get into it wasn’t
her plan
it wasn’t the school she expected to go
to she lets me in the conversation with
the advice that everything would fall
into place that I didn’t have to worry
and that sounds cliche doesn’t it that
we sure we should stray from the path we
should follow our interest but phrases
like the assumed to have lost their
meaning during a time and generation
where they couldn’t be more important
yes or school systems give us many
opportunities many different areas of
discovery and all kinds of resources to
help us in our academic pursuits
yes we’re able to pack college
counselors and SAT tutors and tutors and
more into our schedules to help us get
there and that’s where it stops and
that’s my conflict there are just over
1,800 students and nine of you hi and
yet it feels like there’s one path one
destination 1800 different identities
yet one central place to go how do I
know this sit in Mountain View this
tutorial Center and know here students
talk about classes they enjoy it sigh
about looming AP tests they’ll have to
take walks through the quad while
students decide what classes to take and
how many AP classes you can take is
almost a form of currency telling us how
smart you are
even in a school as strong and vibrant
as nine of you hi we’ve all borne
witness to that certain palpable stress
in the air during finals and testing
stress that almost always includes or
implies college the future and to the
moments of success too when you come
home from school having discover than
95% on a test and you’re still asked to
review the five percent you got wrong or
when what your teachers and parents and
grades say a success really just felt
like a piece of busy work yes education
and the pursuit of higher education is
important but it seems problematic that
in this adolescent age where we’re
growing more and more individual than we
think and act our gratification seems to
stem from elsewhere some of the
frustrations we face regarding
conformity are explained by psychology
when were young kids we like to play
around we’d like to discover new things
when I was a kid I liked to play with a
vacuum cleaner and the expectancy value
theory of achievement states that the
older we are and the longer we spend the
school we become much more adept to
evaluation and feedback from our parents
and peers and we lose interest in
subjects we believe were last interested
in and we shut out opportunities even
when they could lead somewhere and from
all of this we create images of our
self-image that well appear influential
to us don’t objectively illustrate who
we are or what our true potential is and
the effect of this is very clear through
college students and their majors eighty
percent of college students switched
their major at least once in college and
it like likely reveals two things that
number one stepping out of this
environment with all of the grades and
pressure and peers allows us to truly be
ourselves and try different things and
really let ourselves wander and the
second thing is that through the process
of reaching higher education and going
through all of these different
circumstances we haven’t really been
able to wander in high school we haven’t
been able to try as many opportunities
as possible so where we found ourselves
in the most formative years of our lives
years of discovery of possibility of
growth how can we call it cliche to be
told to stray
from the past when we often still find
our true nature suppressed one of my
favorite quotes comes from Oscar Wilde
if you want a happy ending
that depends of course on where you end
the story the truth is our story as high
schoolers doesn’t end once we get into
college and succeed academically being
happy and satisfied and gratified during
high school matters setting ourselves up
for the future is much more than landing
a career and getting a good education
our time as high schoolers should allow
us to build an identity not just a
diploma a purpose not merely career
goals an internal sense of gratification
not just what we’re convinced should
make us happy and the question becomes
with this feeling of conformity with
this feeling of following a set path
with gratification that doesn’t always
come from inside how do we navigate some
of the most formative years of our lives
how do we create a conscious balance of
our extracurricular interests and our
school interests which foster
opportunities in the future though I
think this topic is extremely nuanced
when I think about these questions I
think back to a different counselor a
different idea her to my camp last
summer a different counselor giving a
speech on his own internal nagging in
regards to the path he was supposed to
follow said that’s not the way it has to
be that it’s our obligation to use the
resources we have and follow the path
wherever it takes us not the person next
to us we need to be Wanderers he said
and at first it it seems too easy the
challenge of navigating high school is
immense but wandering feels so simple
but when thinking about the fact that
important discoveries come from straying
from the path and making mistakes like
the discovery of penicillin and the
invention of the microwave how can we
not call ourselves Wanderers and when
following the same road as others but
stepping back to realize that their
version of success isn’t what actually
makes you happy how can we not view
ourselves as Wanderers let’s be clear
it’s important to view ourselves as
Wanderers to understand that there’s
more than one path a high schooler can
take but change for the sake of change
change with no purpose just for the sake
of doing something different is actually
harmful if a student is truly
truly passionate about his academic
endeavors he should be encouraged to
follow that pursuit but if someone feels
somehow held back by the education
system or someone who is pressured to be
in school they should be encouraged to
pursue those alternate interests as well
let’s face it many of us will still find
that getting a career and going to
college and doing all of that is best
for us that’s a fact but that should be
the result of our wandering not the goal
from the beginning our job is to
endeavor endlessly and experiencing
everything that we came we need to take
in the opportunities that yield us
growth not because they’ll look at an
application down the line but because
they look good to us in doing so the
extracurriculars and sports and youth
groups were a part of should be merely
viewed as extra they should be
priorities alongside our school
endeavors let’s create this environment
where the eighteen hundred students and
nine of you high field free enough to
take 18 hundred different routes where
we feel free enough to make our version
of success or compass and we can
consciously in our minds balance those
academic and extracurricular pursuits
where we can confidently animate tokens
words not all those who wander are lost
thank you
[Applause]
high school summer camp and how we spend
that time every summer I had to camp for
about a month and whether it’s
discussing our latest girl troubles or
speculating about the world around us
camp has opened up a lot of
conversations that have introduced us to
a lot of really interesting ideas this
past summer I was in a conversation with
the counselor discussing my various
grievances with school having just ended
my freshman year I was in a dark place
with the expectation many of us are
handed that we go through high school
mainly for academic purposes get good
grades go to college along the way using
our extracurriculars as a way to support
those goals and sometimes we fall short
of that and seeing the frustration in my
eyes at that moment she turned to me and
told me the story of how she got into
college applying the day before the
deadline to a school she never
considered she could get into it wasn’t
her plan
it wasn’t the school she expected to go
to she lets me in the conversation with
the advice that everything would fall
into place that I didn’t have to worry
and that sounds cliche doesn’t it that
we sure we should stray from the path we
should follow our interest but phrases
like the assumed to have lost their
meaning during a time and generation
where they couldn’t be more important
yes or school systems give us many
opportunities many different areas of
discovery and all kinds of resources to
help us in our academic pursuits
yes we’re able to pack college
counselors and SAT tutors and tutors and
more into our schedules to help us get
there and that’s where it stops and
that’s my conflict there are just over
1,800 students and nine of you hi and
yet it feels like there’s one path one
destination 1800 different identities
yet one central place to go how do I
know this sit in Mountain View this
tutorial Center and know here students
talk about classes they enjoy it sigh
about looming AP tests they’ll have to
take walks through the quad while
students decide what classes to take and
how many AP classes you can take is
almost a form of currency telling us how
smart you are
even in a school as strong and vibrant
as nine of you hi we’ve all borne
witness to that certain palpable stress
in the air during finals and testing
stress that almost always includes or
implies college the future and to the
moments of success too when you come
home from school having discover than
95% on a test and you’re still asked to
review the five percent you got wrong or
when what your teachers and parents and
grades say a success really just felt
like a piece of busy work yes education
and the pursuit of higher education is
important but it seems problematic that
in this adolescent age where we’re
growing more and more individual than we
think and act our gratification seems to
stem from elsewhere some of the
frustrations we face regarding
conformity are explained by psychology
when were young kids we like to play
around we’d like to discover new things
when I was a kid I liked to play with a
vacuum cleaner and the expectancy value
theory of achievement states that the
older we are and the longer we spend the
school we become much more adept to
evaluation and feedback from our parents
and peers and we lose interest in
subjects we believe were last interested
in and we shut out opportunities even
when they could lead somewhere and from
all of this we create images of our
self-image that well appear influential
to us don’t objectively illustrate who
we are or what our true potential is and
the effect of this is very clear through
college students and their majors eighty
percent of college students switched
their major at least once in college and
it like likely reveals two things that
number one stepping out of this
environment with all of the grades and
pressure and peers allows us to truly be
ourselves and try different things and
really let ourselves wander and the
second thing is that through the process
of reaching higher education and going
through all of these different
circumstances we haven’t really been
able to wander in high school we haven’t
been able to try as many opportunities
as possible so where we found ourselves
in the most formative years of our lives
years of discovery of possibility of
growth how can we call it cliche to be
told to stray
from the past when we often still find
our true nature suppressed one of my
favorite quotes comes from Oscar Wilde
if you want a happy ending
that depends of course on where you end
the story the truth is our story as high
schoolers doesn’t end once we get into
college and succeed academically being
happy and satisfied and gratified during
high school matters setting ourselves up
for the future is much more than landing
a career and getting a good education
our time as high schoolers should allow
us to build an identity not just a
diploma a purpose not merely career
goals an internal sense of gratification
not just what we’re convinced should
make us happy and the question becomes
with this feeling of conformity with
this feeling of following a set path
with gratification that doesn’t always
come from inside how do we navigate some
of the most formative years of our lives
how do we create a conscious balance of
our extracurricular interests and our
school interests which foster
opportunities in the future though I
think this topic is extremely nuanced
when I think about these questions I
think back to a different counselor a
different idea her to my camp last
summer a different counselor giving a
speech on his own internal nagging in
regards to the path he was supposed to
follow said that’s not the way it has to
be that it’s our obligation to use the
resources we have and follow the path
wherever it takes us not the person next
to us we need to be Wanderers he said
and at first it it seems too easy the
challenge of navigating high school is
immense but wandering feels so simple
but when thinking about the fact that
important discoveries come from straying
from the path and making mistakes like
the discovery of penicillin and the
invention of the microwave how can we
not call ourselves Wanderers and when
following the same road as others but
stepping back to realize that their
version of success isn’t what actually
makes you happy how can we not view
ourselves as Wanderers let’s be clear
it’s important to view ourselves as
Wanderers to understand that there’s
more than one path a high schooler can
take but change for the sake of change
change with no purpose just for the sake
of doing something different is actually
harmful if a student is truly
truly passionate about his academic
endeavors he should be encouraged to
follow that pursuit but if someone feels
somehow held back by the education
system or someone who is pressured to be
in school they should be encouraged to
pursue those alternate interests as well
let’s face it many of us will still find
that getting a career and going to
college and doing all of that is best
for us that’s a fact but that should be
the result of our wandering not the goal
from the beginning our job is to
endeavor endlessly and experiencing
everything that we came we need to take
in the opportunities that yield us
growth not because they’ll look at an
application down the line but because
they look good to us in doing so the
extracurriculars and sports and youth
groups were a part of should be merely
viewed as extra they should be
priorities alongside our school
endeavors let’s create this environment
where the eighteen hundred students and
nine of you high field free enough to
take 18 hundred different routes where
we feel free enough to make our version
of success or compass and we can
consciously in our minds balance those
academic and extracurricular pursuits
where we can confidently animate tokens
words not all those who wander are lost
thank you
[Applause]
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