Below is a transcription of a speech given to MS/US students during an assembly

Good morning, everyone. This is spectacular.

Let me tell you about a girl named Allie. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I came to Waterford in ninth grade, and she was in another grade, and I went, “Wow, that’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.” And I remember thinking, “How could I get her to like me?”

So I started drawing and showing her all of my drawings. And she was like, “Oh, those are nice.” And I drew a picture of her and handed it to her. I don’t know what happened to that picture, if she kept it or threw it away. But I can tell you that she looked at it and wasn’t as impressed as I hoped she would be.

I remember, though, that the teacher saw that I had drawn a picture of her and it was pretty good, so they asked me to be the artist for the Waterford newsletter. And so I became a caricature artist for Waterford and got to draw every new person that came to the school.

Then I realized that Allie, since she didn’t like the drawings and wouldn’t go out with me that way, I figured, “Okay, maybe I could make her laugh because she liked to laugh.” And I had been making people laugh my whole life by doing funny voices, funny faces, funny things. And when I did these things for her, other people around her laughed, but she did not as much as I wanted her to.

I could do funny things with my face. Some of you probably can’t see this far, but I could move my lips like that [does demonstration of a silly face]. And I thought that would make her like me. And she just thought it was weird. But everybody thought it was cool that I could make that face and talk at the same time. And I became known as the kid who could do funny faces. I find it interesting that I then got to do assemblies and show my funny faces, and everybody laughed. And I did my funny voices, and they thought it was cool.

Then I realized she liked athletes, so I started working on becoming a better athlete. I don’t have athletic ability. So I decided I wanted to be on the basketball team, and I shot 50,000 baskets one summer in order to try to get her to like me. And that didn’t quite work out, but I did make the basketball team, and eventually did make All-State. And I was the first All-State basketball player from Waterford from the Sandy campus.

I was offered a full-ride scholarship to BYU, actually—for basketball—and it turns out it wasn’t for basketball only—it was to be the manager of the team because they thought I was so funny and I was a fun athlete.

I find it interesting that then I tried with Allie to sing. I wanted to make her swoon with me, and so I would sing in the hall with my friend Quinn. And Quinn used to perform at the Hale Center Theater down the street. And so Quinn and I started a little quartet that we called the Dry Sockets, which we thought was a funny dental name. And a teacher named Mrs. Rosalind Hall heard us singing in the hall, and she said, “You young men,” with her voice from Wales, “you young men need to start a quartet.”

And so we started singing at the basketball game for the national anthem. We would sing for everything, and eventually we called ourselves the Troubadours. And I think you still have to try out for that now, if I understand right, and that the Troubadours are still a thing here.

All I’m saying is that it never worked out for me and Allie. She never liked me. I don’t even know what happened to Allie, but she drove me to try everything that has become my life. And I’m so thankful for somebody like that who drove me to discover my talents and gifts.

Whether it’s your willingness and interest in finding out what you’re good at, or discovering your signature moves that make you uniquely who you are. This last week, I just got done with a 10-show run at the Hale Center Theater, where I got to perform to sold-out crowds down the street from Waterford, where I had tried to impress Allie, and now I get to make a living as a performer.

I also became the student body president of the school in an effort to try to impress Allie. And you know what? Every single one of these things helped me get to a better place.

Like I said, I don’t know what happened to her. I hope that she’s had great success. I assume that she has because she went to Waterford. But eventually, I had forgotten about Allie. In fact, I forgot about her for a couple of decades, you guys. I haven’t been at this school as a student for 28 years. That is crazy to think.

And I was thinking about this as I drove here today, I thought I should share about Allie, because she’s probably made a big difference in other people’s lives and she probably has no idea that I was going to talk about her today. But I can tell you this: there are people in our lives who help us get to a different level, a different place, a different space. And I’m so thankful for somebody like that who inspired me.

I hope that you think about the person who inspired you. I have teachers in this room who, when I showed up, it was intimidating to be taught by them, and they have now become my friends. They encouraged me to get to a better space and place. I see Mr. Harris in the audience. I see Mr. Rosette in the audience. I’m looking at some of these people and I’m thinking, “I can’t believe that they’re still here,” and how lucky you are that they are still here.

Each of them has what I call a signature move that they identified, clarified, and magnified by experimenting on what they could do that made them great to keep their promise to the world. Each of you has signature moves that make you unique. Are you discovering them, or are you just holding back because you don’t know if it’s okay to fail? The more you fail, the more success you have. When you shine your light, there will be more light in the lives of others.

I’m so thankful for the teachers I’ve had that came through here, the other peers that I’ve had that made a difference in my life. And I can tell you that Waterford changed my whole existence. I’ve gotten to perform and speak around the world for audiences of probably over a million people. In fact, last September, I performed for over 250,000 people in one month in stadiums and arenas around this country.

That’s a pretty interesting thing, to think that I was not a successful student at Waterford as a student who got good grades. Rather, Waterford taught me how to learn to love learning, how to learn to serve others, and how to find my own gifts and talents. And even though I didn’t do well in English in Mr. Rosette’s class, I still wrote a book called “The Promise to the One.” The promise to the one is the promise to yourself. What do you promise yourself that you will try and experiment and work for?

And guess what? The thing with Allie didn’t work out, and that’s okay. Actually, I’m very grateful because it led me to the love of my life. Her name is Tammy. She didn’t go to Waterford. We met after I got home from my mission in Brazil. And we’ve gone on to have a family of four beautiful children. They’re all now your age. They’re graduating from high school, and they’re in the upper school stage of their life.

And I’m so thankful that all of this led to a family that I have that I love, a career that’s wonderful, and I hope that you know that each of you can make it a wonderful world if you’ll share your talents and gifts. I’m Jason Hewlett. Thank you, guys.