Kevin Tran’s Valedictory Address at Helix Charter High School

Kevin Tran delivered this speech June 2, 2011, at Helix Charter High School  commencement. He is the son Mr. and Mrs. Hai (Huong) Tran of La Mesa.

Good evening, parents, teachers, faculty, family, guests and my fellow students.

My name is Captain Obvious, and today Helix’s Class of 2011 is about to graduate. I stand here today to talk to all of you about this fine institution we call Helix.

What do you know about Helix? This question is what I’ve spent the last two weeks of my life obssessing over. And to be honest, I was stumped. But there’s one place I always go when I’m stumped—Wikipedia. So I can gladly tell you all today that Helix is a “(quote) a smooth curve in three-dimensional space, or a space curve.”    

I remember on the first day at this space curve, I walked into Senora Pool’s Spanish class. And then it was like BAM! She started throwing Spanish at me crazy fast. I was really freaked out. Thankfully, everyone around me was just as freaked out as I was.

I mean, freshman year was freaky in general. All of us nonswimmers struggling to finish our 10th lap in PE. I should’ve been smart like the other kids and faked my way into swimming in the B pool. Good thing there was EXL to get some sleep afterwards.

I remember classes like guitar class with Mr. Lindhorst, who always seemed to mix me up with Adrian in class but always remembered me as Kevin outside of class. And then there was Tech with Mr. Cook who was cool enough to let me bribe him with a stick of gum.

There was Mr. Mosteller and his Mario Kart sessions. And Mr. Ream’s English, where most of us got our first taste of Shakespeare. Then sophomore year came along and all of us thought we were tough, cause we knew our way around Helix better than Google Maps did. That’s when a lot of us got our first kick of AP with Mr. Sabin’s SP Euro, which consisted mostly of powerpoints and yelling.

But he only yelled because he cared. And then there was Mr. Kepper’s biology class where I first experienced bacon in its natural form—through a baby pig dissection.

Then came junior year. The killer year. The year where we took our SAT’s. The year where we took our driving tests. In school, we somehow had to fight our way through AP English without plagiarizing. (hehe) Oh, and there was AP Psych with Ms. Damschen. The class where I actually learned the most useful substance.

Remember that, all you youngin’s in the stands. Anyway, no one can forget physics with Mr. Dartland. The guy who cracked so many jokes that most of the class didn’t even realize they were jokes.

Finally, comes senior year, which consisted of procrastinating on a project that takes over 20 hours and then complaining on Facebook about how much work this school makes us do. Alongside this, a lot of us had to change our diapers in Mr. Baits’ class, due to his sheer intimidation.

We also stood in shock and awe in the presence of Marginal Cost Man, (aka Mr. Asimos). All of the teachers really defined our high school experience inside the classroom. Thank you, teachers, for stressing us out, but also for letting us leave with a bit more knowledge then I came in with.

But it wasn’t only the teachers that made my high school experience. There were the ukulele players who gave this school some lighthearted background music. There were the dance crazes that would teaching me how to jerk and dougie.

I enjoyed watching the dances evolve from flying like Souljaboy’s Superman to riding a wheelchair with the Cat Daddy. But most of the Scottie pride comes from our awesome football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, aquatics, track and a bunch of other sports teams.

As for tennis, well you other sports set the standards too high for us. Sorry, Coach Diaz, maybe you’ll get a better bunch next time. But there were also times where our Scottie pride wasn’t so great—times where Helix Charter High School could’ve became Helix High School.

Thank you, staff and faculty, for preventing that from happening, and all the other behind-the-scenes work you do.

And finally, I’d like to thank my parents. Mom and Dad, thank you for always being there to keep me on track when my brain was lost in YouTube and the refresh button on Facebook. “Cam on ba ma luon luon huong dan con va day gio con. Con thuong ba ma lam.”   

OH! And how could I forget the most important part of high school? Friends. Whether you’re my Facebook friend or one of my closes friends, thank you for sharing this experience with me. Especially you, Helen Dang.

And so, we’re all going off to new places. We’re going to leave Helix, but Helix will never leave us. It’ll always be right here (pat chest)—in our brains, because the heart pumps blood. Once a Scottie, always a Scottie.