Thank you, Mr. Jaccaci. And good morning, Class of ’26, Tabor community, families, faculty, and alumni.
As many of you know, I am standing here today for one simple reason: chicken tenders.
For those who do not know, most of my presidential campaign was about chicken tenders every Tuesday. And it was not just some silly idea I thought of while hungry. It was a well-planned strategy that I thought of while hungry. Tender Tuesday worked so well because it was a small part of the day that everyone valued together. It was not a championship game or prom. It was a random Tuesday with chicken tenders.
The things that end up mattering most are the things you don’t anticipate. They are the small, unremarkable shared moments that make up most of your lives that you almost never notice and usually forget by the end of the day. After years of being a student, I have been in the same conversation hundreds of times. Three more weeks until spring break. I need to survive until the weekend. When is Vince going to get this speech over with?
We are always somewhere else in our heads, waiting for the next thing. But the thing about living in the future is that you miss everything happening right now. Think about a road trip. Nobody frames a photo of the highway. Nobody remembers the gas station or the bad Wi-Fi or the arguments about where to stop for food. But a few years from now, those are the things you laugh about. The destination was just the excuse to take the trip.
The championships, the awards, the college acceptances—those were the destinations. But now consider the road getting here. The late nights with friends, the Tender Tuesdays, the Macbeth performance. That was the actual trip.
So how do you stop staring out the window and letting time pass? Be grateful. Gratitude is not just a feeling you get when life is going well. It is a deliberate choice. All the planning, the worrying, the waiting—it all goes quiet the second you stop and appreciate something. The amount of beauty in your life is dependent on whether you choose to notice it.
I am extremely grateful for the people that have been on this road with me for years. You were there for the late nights and the early mornings and the Tender Tuesdays. You will spend years of your life trying to find people who share these experiences with you. And right now, they are sitting right next to you.
So before you look forward to whatever is waiting for you after this—and it is going to be great—take one second to be here, really here. Take a look around and appreciate how far you’ve come and the people who have helped you get here.
Congratulations, Class of ’26. We have shared the past, we are sharing this moment, and we will live on in each of our future beginnings. Thank you.
Tabor Academy Co-Head of School Senior Address
By Vince White ’26