COLLIN YAHN: Good afternoon! Welcome everyone. I’m Collin Yahn and this is Joey Dotty and first off we would like to say thank you to all the teachers, parents and faculty for helping us get here today.

All right guys, I know it’s cliche, but we have to do our senior selfie.

JOE DOTTY: Cole and Carter, no gang signs please.

*Pause*

Thank you for helping us and supporting us throughout our whole high school career. Without you all, we would not be here today to give this speech. I told Collin in eighth grade that I would be giving a speech on graduation day. He never believed me. And now I roped him into it.

YAHN: I can’t believe we are graduating already. I will never forget when I saw the "Spider Man" movie for the first time. I told my mom that I want to be a superhero when I grow up. She said, “Grow up, Collin, you’re graduating next week.”

DOTTY: This past year has been - as cliche as it sounds - a roller coaster. Who knew that some dude eating a bat would put us out of school for a year? It’s crazy how we are seniors all of a sudden. Now I will never take the saying “time flies” for granted.

YAHN: I think within this last year we have all gained the skill of using “our resources." Without Google, I think we would all have the IQ of a caveman.

DOTTY: We’ve been through it all together, class of 2021. We’ve all experienced long essay writing, brutal standardized testing, and most of us have joined a Zoom class in our pajamas.

YAHN: We even went through puberty together. Some of us were getting acne on our face while I was still wearing light up Skechers.

DOTTY: Some of us developed sass a little earlier, like Cole Trottier. I remember in Mrs. McCarthy’s fourth-grade class when she told Cole, “Quit talking while I’m teaching.” Cole responded, “Quit teaching while I’m talking.”

YAHN: As a class, we have a lot of shared memories. One that I will never forget was during the eighth-grade field trip at Pirate’s Cove when Noah Barth attempted to hit a golf ball onto the highway. He was immediately sent back to the school on a bus by himself.

DOTTY: I’m pretty sure he actually got it on the highway! And who could forget our class president, Gabe Maske, wearing the greatest costumes to school. From Naruto to medieval knights, it was always Halloween for Gabe. We love our class president. Let's give him a round of applause.

YAHN: Some of us even tried making our own music during high school. Some of my favorite songs were made by none other than Simon Wuflestad. They have since been deleted, but they were legendary while they existed.

DOTTY: We had plenty of field trips to Trout Lake Camp. I think we all shared the same fear when it came to jumping off the zipline. That’s when you could pick out the children from the adults.

*Pause*

As some of you may not know, Mikaela used to play basketball. There was a game in particular where the boys got to watch the girls play. Mikaela got subbed in with 3 minutes left and racked up a crazy stat line: 1 turnover, fell over 3 times and 2 broken ankles. She was the definition of a true patriot athlete.

YAHN: There were plenty of trends that have come and gone. From the Orange Justice to the Whip/Nae Nae, some dances will live on. We were even dancing to songs we didn’t even understand the words to. Gangnam Style. Now let's get a show of hands for who posted their first Fortnite win on their Snapchat story. Ryan, I better see that hand up!

DOTTY: Our grade is super competitive. On our eighth-grade bike trip to Nisswa, Landon and Connor decided to see who could finish a gallon of A&W root beer first. Landon proceeded to throw up on the floor of the bathroom at Nisswa Park and covered it up with the floor mat.

YAHN: One of my favorite memories is back in 10th grade when I rap battled none other than Chase Decker, AKA Lil Night Sky. My rhymes were cool, my beats were sick, but I could never beat the true lyricist.

DOTTY: Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about our wonderful teachers. From Roepke and Starns prank wars, to Oodles in Mr. Moddes' class, our teachers here at Pequot always kept school life interesting.

YAHN: Now I know we’ve only scratched the surface of our high school experiences, and everyone has their own high school memories. Some are good and some are bad, but it's these memories that made high school what it was for everyone.

Class of 2021, we’ve had a lot of good times together, and I know we are going to miss every one of you.

DOTTY: As Juice WRLD once said, “As we go on, we remember all the times we had together. As our lives change from whatever, we will still be friends forever."

Joe Dotty and Collin Yahn are Pequot Lakes High School graduating seniors.