I had never once imagined that there would come a day when I would be proud of Derek Kalimanis. Three long, confusing years seemed to be wrapped up all in this one tight bundle of memories and emotions. It felt as though somehow, the next four hours were supposed to summarize an entire era of over a hundred individual lives, let alone this one life that had touched mine so deeply.

Graduation day had come so…so unexpectedly. It felt as though it had been mere months ago that I had been a tiny freshman, outcast and new and unexplored, untormented. So there I stood, on a stage in the beautiful June weather that can only be found in a New England town. It was my graduation, so why was I so proud of Derek? Because. He'd shown up. I watched him smile when they called me to the podium to make my most unexpected Valedictorian speech: "Carson Cassimov…."