I'm writing from the Russellville High School Cyclone Arena.

I'm here to deliver the keynote speech on Senior Signing Day.

The event is a way to highlight all the graduating seniors going off to college, the military, or entering the workforce. It's a cool idea, and one that's new to me.

Back when I was a senior at RHS (20 years ago, come fall), there was no such thing as Senior Signing Day. The multimillion-dollar arena where I'm sitting now hadn’t been conceived, much less constructed. None of the students in attendance today had been born yet, either. I say all of this not to make myself feel old, but instead to serve as a segue to the past.

In preparation for this speech I'm set to deliver, I've been thinking a lot about the past, about my time as a Cyclone.

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It all started when I was four, and my parents set out across the state in search of the "best school district in Arkansas" (or at least the best one that would also hire them).

That's how I arrived in Russellville. We had no friends. No family. My parents were just impressed by the school district, so much so that they uprooted their entire lives and moved halfway across the state.

Looking back on that decision — especially considering the things I've been able to do, the places I've gone, over the last twenty years — I know my parents made the right choice.

Russellville was the perfect mix. It wasn't just a football school, or a band school, or a purely academic institution. It was all those things, and as a result, I was able to foster my love of learning and athletics, and even fit in a little music too. The variety RHS offered allowed me to earn a scholarship to play quarterback in college. It gave me the knowledge I needed to major in English Literature, and later, create my own literature.

RHS's unique blend was also evident in its population. From my time at Dwight Elementary, all the way up through my senior year, I was constantly around a variety of people. I had friends and teammates from different demographics and socioeconomic groups. As a result, I was comfortable around folks who didn't look like me or talk like me.

This experience served me well when I went off to college in Boca Raton. South Florida was a melting pot of cultures, and thanks to my education at RHS, this Arkansas boy made out just fine in the Sunshine State.

The same was true when, after graduating from college, I set sail for Sweden. Thanks to my time as a Cyclone, I embraced the mystery of Scandinavia with curiosity instead of fear.

As I've gone about preparing for this speech, I've been thinking a lot about why high school matters. Like everything else, I think education has changed over the last 20 years. And in this new, AI-fueled age of education, that change has hit warp speed.

These days, I don't think what students learn (e.g., similes, metaphors, the quadratic equation) matters nearly as much as how they learn it. The most important lesson high school teaches us is how to get along, how to be a part of a community, a town, a state, a country.

These seniors will be graduating soon. They'll be attending different universities, joining the workforce, the Navy, the Army. And I want them to know that thanks to the time that they've invested in the Russellville School District, as well as the investment RSD has made in them, they are prepared.

Now, if I can just fit all of this into my 8-min speech!

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