In his graduation address, Karlo Andrei Antalan ’21 said that in high school, he and his classmates had tended to “complicate things more than necessary.”
“We think not in simple words or short sentences,” he said, “but in run-ons, drawn-out phrases, and never-ending analyses. We spend countless hours honing opinions, ideas, thoughts, and concepts to eloquently portray them on pieces of paper or Google documents that we submit seconds before they are due.”
This tendency to think in “the most convoluted ways” sometimes causes them to neglect simple messages of appreciation, gratitude, and love.
“We need to take the time to stop and smell the roses, to stay present in the moment, and to revel in the limited time we share with one another,” he said, “to take the time to say the things that continue to be left unsaid because of their simplicity. For it is exactly those that are simple that must be said.”