”Can you believe you're a junior already? I couldn't! I still can't believe I don't walk these halls anymore. It's been 7 years, I think? Wow. I'm going to hit my thirties soon... spooky. I remember helping my father back at the Diner, cooking things like the Rocky & Bullwinkle casserole or our to-die-for Heartbreaker burger. Still great, right?” Harper held onto the hand mic, her dark orbs never looking away from the next generation of leading figures. ”Thanks to my unyielding ambition and passionate voice, yeah, I know, here comes the encouragement speech, I relentlessly embarked on a journey that landed me a job at Google. The best part is, I'm able to stay in the comfort of my home while I program, which was kinda necessary since I chose to be with a man who joined the military right after grad. Not so much anymore since we're both doing pretty well.”

By now, everyone knew how successful she was. Word travels fast here at Westworth, but it was something she was required to say before she broke into storytime with her husband and highschool sweetheart, ”Look at me! Aren’t I just the coolest? Dreams do come true!” She loudly roared, causing some students drifting into sleep to jump, ”Y'know, after sweat, sleep deprivation, and alcohol! Don't tell Principal Locke I said that... oh wait, he's sitting right there. Hey there! Did you miss me?” The formally dressed woman, who was once known to be the biggest activist in this small place called home, gave the old man of the school a cheesy grin.

Principal Marcus E. Locke, who was sitting on the first set of bleachers beside the office staff members, lightheartedly rolled his eyes at the alumnae. She use to drive him insane with her constant office visits, where she politely (and aggressively) requested to make the cafeteria food gluten free or to upgrade the dinosaur computers that once resided in the library. If it wasn’t for Harper, these students wouldn’t have had some of the amenities the school has now.

”Most of you already know I can talk your ears off. I'm sure my father complains about it all the time, so I'll give Nick the floor. My contact information isn't that hard to obtain and I'm always open to answering questions."

Despite the formality of Harper’s wear, her husband chose to wear a black hoodie and blue jeans as he stood on stage. Honestly, he figured that if Harper hadn’t been invited, he probably wouldn’t have been… Initially, Harper had, well, harped about his choice of clothing, but he’d just shrugged and said ‘it’s cold out, Harper.’ Nick knew the truth: by the time they were done with their speeches or whatever they were doing, she’d be wearing the fucking hoodie. Probably before they even walked off the stage.

It’d been happening since they got together ages ago. Honestly, Nicholas wasn’t sure how he’d ever succeeded in getting Harper to love him, but hey--dreams do come true. That’s what wifey had said, right? Oh boy, they were looking at him. Did that mean he had to talk? He did have a microphone, but for most of their, uh, duet speech, Nick had just been standing there awkwardly. What? Being back at the high school reminded him of when he’d been an awkward little runt, just like some of the boys out there in the audience right now.

What could he say about high school? It didn’t matter in the long run? Don’t take it too seriously because no one cares? You can get anywhere in life through hard work and dedication? The janitor keeps booze in the shed outback by the field and never locked it? But, seriously, kids stressed over high school way too hard… Nick cleared his throat. Might as well tell them how it really was.

”I could stand here and I could talk to you about how successful I am, and how much the school here helped with that, and I could tell you what it’s like to be an officer in the United States Air Force, and how cool it is to work on fighter jets every day, and how I smile everytime I go into my job, but… You guys don’t want to hear that really, do you? Plus, Harper bragged enough for the both of us already.” Nick paused, looked over at his wife and winked. "So, I’m not gonna do that. Instead, I’m just going to tell you the truth: look, in a few years, high school isn’t going to be much more than memories, and you have to keep that in mind. I know it seems like it’s life or death now, but it really isn’t. Now, I’m not trying to say to you that it just doesn’t matter--it does, okay? But you shouldn’t overwork yourself, like if you fail to get into your dream university or fail to get your athletic scholarship, that it’s all over. Because it isn’t. High school is just the beginning, and what you should really focus on is making good memories. Make these last few years together with your classmates--your family for almost the past two decades--something you can look back on and smile. Don’t forget where you come from, Westworth is small, but hey, I spent almost my whole life here except for the last seven and I loved every second of it.”

Another pause as he frowned slightly at the microphone, searching for words to keep going in the right direction, ”there's lots of life advice that I can hand to you from the seven years I’ve had. I’ve traveled the world with my job and it’s awesome, for sure. I don’t regret it, but I didn’t get here just because of how I did in high school. I was an awkward nerdy looking kid in high school, but I grew up past that and I became an adult. Don’t just learn things in school, learn to fish, learn to work on cars. I could go on for hours, but just be the best you can be. Don’t try to be someone else, and don’t compare yourself to a celebrity. Just be you. You’re pretty good.”

”Just have fun, eat sweets, maybe walk and exercise as much as you can. At the end of the day, all I can say that’s really going to mean much is just be good to yourself and each other, because no one else is gonna be good to you. And… I’m out.” Nick saluted the crowd with a bit of a smile, then pulled the mic away from his face and looked over at Harper, shifting.

”...did I do good?"