Hey! It’s dinner time!

Firstly, a huge shout out to the best Class Dean and Cross Country coach in the land—Ms. Talbot a.k.a Mrs. Talbot-Syfu.  a.k.a Ms. Talfu.  a.k.a Sybot

Frankly, it’s surreal to be chatting at a dinner without my mouth full of food, but I guess my mom finally got her way in terms of my learning something about etiquette. Anyway, I feel as if my convocation speech was a tad on the Darth Vader side of the force —Socrates, Success, Summing Up, etc. That’s why I now feel this neurotic compulsion to venture away from my dark side in an attempt to bring some balance to the universe. Fortunately, I didn’t actually sound like old, wheezy Darth earlier today, which, by the way, sounds a lot like Sameer’s snoring.

I’m up here to talk about giving back. What I mean is how we’re going to care for this community in our waning months here—and also in the distant future. Giving back to Williston is far more than just giving some coin; it is an every-day process. If you’re doing things right, if you’re taking care of business, and if you’re still staying grounded in your morals, then you’re giving back to this special place.

HOWEVER, you might as well give back in more ways than one, right? So, on your tables, you’ll find some envelopes. Ideally, you’ll throw 20 dollars and 15 cents in there because that is both punny and beneficial to the school. However, anything helps, and all of us want maximum participation, so just go ahead and give what you can, and see how it feels.

Maybe you’ll feel your envelope is hungry—much like muah—and that you should feed it prodigiously. If so, oodles of shekels will make for happy envelopes! Yay, money, loot, cash money! Last year’s senior class had an 84% participation rate at this event; the class of 2015 can obviously beat that mark, so let’s smash that 84% benchmark, so then we can all feel self-satisfied.

By the way, the money that you put in your respective envelopes will go toward our senior class gift. We’re not sure what the gift will actually be at this time, but a committee made up of—wait, timeout, this is unexpected shout out time for a few of you—a committee made up of Maisy Glick, Loren Po, Emily Grussing, Hannah King, and me will be helping push along that decision. You’ll be hearing from us in the near future, so look forward to that. Anyway, dig deep and contribute to our class gift. May the generosity force be with you!

Thanks!