THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2021 Page 9 2021 Saugus High School graduation The Salutatory Address By Charles Denovellis W ow, you really don’t ever think you’ll get to this moment. I’ve watched some of my friends and sister graduate, and you know that someday it’ll be you, but you don’t really realize it’s happening until you’re actually up on this stage. I’m up here right now to give a speech as your salutatorian and leave you with something inspirational or thought-provoking. I have been told by my teachers that one of my weaknesses is my writing, so we’re gonna see how this goes. The two pieces of advice I received was to make it good and make it funny. Not very specifi c but with those as my goal I sat down (about two days ago), opened my computer and started to write. Probably 15 minutes in it hit me. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to write about. I’m a kid that got a few good grades on tests – what advice am I supposed to have to give to you? I simply did not know. Sometimes (in fact a lot of the time) in life you’ll fi nd you just don’t know. Now I don’t know a lot of things; my friends often call me the dumbest smart kid they know. My freshman year I had to visit the main offi ce, where I was confused to fi nd that the door was locked. It was only after someone had opened the door for me that I realized I was supposed to be pushing rather than pulling. Just last week on our last day my friend Colin let me know that I was in fact parked in the wrong spot. So everyone got to watch me get out of my car just to get back into it and pull into my actual spot, the spot I had been parking in all year (second in the class). But let’s face it, the things we don’t know are not always gonna end in funny situations. We will experience, if we have not experienced it already, a big life question that we may not have the answer to. What am I going to do with my life? How am I going to deal with this situation? How am I going to get through this? I’m sure a lot of us have asked these same questions to ourselves, and have answered back “I don’t know.” Not knowing can be scary. Not knowing can be embarrassing. Not knowing can be stressful. I’m sure many of us have looked at the people around us and thought they seem to have all the answers and have asked ourselves “so why don’t I?” But I can assure you most of them are just as confused as you are. Not knowing is okay, it’s a natural human reaction. Nobody knows everything, despite my friends and family for supporting me through the years, the Saugus High School staff and administration for helping us along in our journeys, and Mrs. Hashem and Ms. Usseglio for being great advisors all four years. If there is one thing I wish to leave you with, it’s that you have years and years to think about the past and worry about your future. It’s graduation, take today to be proud of yourself for this accomplishment. Thank you. Editor’s Note: Charles Jerry Denovellis fi nished as the second highest scholastically ranked student in the Saugus High School Class of 2021, thus earning the honor to deliver the Salutatorian Address at the school’s 150th Commencement Exercises. He plans on attending the University of Massachusetts Lowell in the fall. CHARLES DENOVELLIS: He fi nished as the second highest scholastically ranked student in the Class of 2021, earning the honor to be the class Salutatorian. (Saugus Advocate photo by Mark E. Vogler) what some people would like you to believe. It’s when we focus so much on not knowing that we forget to fi nd a solution, that it becomes a problem. So do yourself a favor and don’t worry about not knowing – spend that energy and time on fi nding an answer. I know that being confused and not knowing the answers to big questions in life can bring you to a low point, but the best thing about low points is that there is nowhere to go but up. On that optimistic note I’d like to congratulate the class of 2021, we’ve made it. Michael, it’s been an honor competing with you. I’d like to also thank 2021 Saugus High School graduation The Valedictory Address By Michael Kenny Thank you, Mr. Hashem. Four years ago – I stood at a podium in the old Saugus High School auditorium and gave a speech at our eighth grade moving on ceremony. As a matter of fact, I have that speech right here. While trying to figure out what I wanted to say today, I looked over this speech again. I had to stop myself from cringing when I realized that I quoted myself, Dory from Finding Nemo, and the one and only Mr. Cox. Nonetheless, I did have some good lines in there. I wrote how, and I quote, “We are going to be high school students. In about two and half months, we will once again feel like six graders. We will once again have to fi nd our way around and adjust to a new learning environment. But eventually in four short years we will be sitting here before you at another graduation.” That day has come. With that being said, I want to give a warm welcome to the teachers, administration, faculty members, town offi cials, parents, siblings, and other family members gathered here today to commemorate the end of an era. Now I’m going to be completely honest; I’ve known for quite some time that I’d have to give a speech up here, but of course I did what every high schooler does. Procrastinate. I thought for so long and asked so many people how I could make this speech somewhat interesting because believe me I’ve had to sit through some that were worse than virtually logging into homeroom just to go back to sleep on a Monday morning. What I came up with was MICHAEL KENNY: He fi nished as the top scholasticallyranked student in the Class of 2021, earning the honor to be the class Valedictorian. (Saugus Advocate photo by Mark E. Vogler) to try and make my speech, our speech. 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