A couple of weeks ago, Southern Regional Middle School teacher Scott Cooper hand-delivered a letter to Abigail Patchell. She had written it to herself in eighth grade, and Cooper gave it back to her as a parting gift as she embarked upon graduation from high school.

“I wrote in that letter to myself, ‘I hope you’re writing your valedictorian speech,’ and here I am,” said Patchell, about 25 minutes before stepping up to the podium on Southern’s football field and delivering that speech to…