YouTube Star Casey Neistat Delivers Commencement Address

YouTube storyteller and Nantucket summer resident Casey Neistat was the commencement speaker at the 2025 Nantucket High School graduation ceremony on Friday.

The students picked him, principal Mandy Vasil told the Current.

Neistat told the 148 graduating seniors in the class of 2025 about how he had dropped out of high school, how his vice principal told him he’d either end up a millionaire or in jail, and the decisions he made to find a more fulfilling and meaningful life.

“The recipe I’ve found to make the best decisions is to seek knowledge wherever you can find it,” he said. “If that’s in school, you listen to your teachers. If that’s at a job, you listen to your boss. If it’s in a book, you pay attention to every word.”

“It’s up to you to find the flaws. It’s up to you to find the things that don’t make sense and to change them. And if you do that, that’s when you have an impact,” he said.

Neistat, who now has more than 12 million subscribers on YouTube, concluded by advising the graduates to “appreciate that no one knows anything. And it’s up you. No pressure. Good luck.”

Video by Nantucket Community Television