#beth cooper

"Well, finally."

Today we look forward. Look forward to getting out of here. But today, I would also like to look back...look back on our 4 years here at Buffalo Glenn High School...looking back not with anger...but with no regrets. No regrets for what we wanted to do...but did not...what we wanted to say...but could not. And so I say here today...the one thing I wish I had said...the one thing I know I will regret if I never say: I love you, Beth Cooper. I have loved you, Beth Cooper...since I first sat behind you in Ms. Rosa's math class in the 7th grade. Heh. I loved you when I sat behind you in Señora Weidner's Spanish...and Ms. Calumet-Hobey's Literature of the Oppressed. I loved you from behind...in Biology, History, and, yes, Practical Science. I loved you, but I never told you because we never spoke. But now I say it, with no regrets. I love you, Beth Cooper. And so let us all say the things that we longed to say...but our tongues would not. Let us be unafraid to admit: "I have an eating disorder, and I need help." Let us confess: "I'm a stuck-up bitch...because deep down, I believe I am worthless." Let us declare: "I'm a big, dumb moron. I'm a big, old asshole who beats up on other kids...because I was unloved as a baby...or was sexually abused or something. I am sorry for the cruel swirlies...the pink bellies...the purple nurples." And let us, no, let all of us vow: "When I graduate, I'm not gonna keep hanging around my old high school...like some kind of creepy loser...who can't get an adult girlfriend." You know who you are. And, yes, let us not regret...that we never told our own best friend: "I'm gay, dude. I'm totally gay."