First TA Talk of the Year Encourages Students to Ask “What If?”

The first TA Talk of the 2026–27 school year encouraged students to think differently about a question they often ask themselves: What if?

Senior Matthias Roy ’27 shared stories from his own experiences — from spending a night alone in a Pennsylvania hotel to stepping into the role of Mr. Darcy in Thayer’s production of Pride and Prejudice — to explore how fear of judgment can keep people from pursuing opportunities they want.

Roy was introduced by his friend and fellow senior Adam Beltrami ’27, who has known Roy since eighth grade. Beltrami described Roy as “incredibly intelligent and hardworking,” as well as “caring, genuine” and always willing to push others to be their best.

“The thing I’ve come to appreciate most about Matt is who he is as a person,” Beltrami said.

Roy began his talk with a seemingly ordinary experience: trying to do laundry by himself.

After attending a track and field camp in Meadville, Pennsylvania, Roy was spending a night alone in a hotel before heading home. Having never been to a laundromat before, he struggled to figure out how to purchase detergent, eventually celebrating when a small box of Tide fell from the dispenser.

Though the victory was small, the experience represented something larger for Roy. At 17, he was beginning to navigate independence while still feeling very much like a kid.

“I always thought it’d be easy to grow up, to live by yourself, to have some freedom,” Roy said. “I thought it’d be fun.”

Instead, he found himself consumed by what other people might think of him. Because of his size and appearance, Roy was often mistaken for someone older, and he worried that people expected him to act like an adult.

That anxiety ultimately kept him from doing something as simple as going out to dinner.

Roy’s mother had recommended a nearby restaurant, Timber Creek Tap & Table, but Roy was too uncomfortable with the idea of dining alone. He stayed in his hotel room instead, eating beef jerky and drinking Gatorade.

The next day, he went to the restaurant with his mother and discovered that he had missed what he described as one of the best sandwiches he had ever eaten.

The experience became a lesson in how fear of judgment can cause people to miss opportunities.

“A lot of us have decided not to participate in something that was really appealing or decided not to take an action that we really wanted to,” Roy said. “We were afraid of what others would think.”

Roy encouraged students to consider the difference between the certainty of failure and the uncertainty of regret.

“‘I failed,’ or ‘I was made fun of,’ or ‘it didn’t work out’ are all a million times better than a ‘what if’ that has no answer,” he said.

Rather than using what if to dwell on missed opportunities, Roy challenged students to use the question as motivation.

“What if I get a five? What if I win General Thayer? What if everything goes exactly as I want it to?” he asked. “And even what if it doesn’t?”

Roy reflected on his own experience auditioning for Thayer’s winter production of Pride and Prejudice. Although he ultimately earned the lead role of Mr. Darcy, he initially worried that his friends and classmates would judge him for auditioning.

He remembered sneaking into the CFA through a back entrance and looking toward the theater doors during his audition, worried that someone might walk in and see him.

“I genuinely thought that if my friends found out, I would never live it down,” Roy said.

But when he eventually told his friends, their response was the opposite of what he had imagined.

“They told me that what I had done was awesome,” he said. “They were actually happy for me.”

There were jokes — including the nickname “Mr. Darcy” — but Roy realized that the negative reactions he had spent so much time imagining largely existed only in his head.

“Every negative thing that I thought people would say was in my imagination,” he said. “I’d gotten so caught up in what I assumed everybody else thought about me, and it wasn’t even the case.”

For Roy, the experience offered a lasting perspective on the power people give to the opinions of others.

“The large majority of people in your life won’t stop liking you or start liking you or even perceive you differently just because you do something unexpected,” he said.

Roy closed by encouraging his classmates to take the chance, try the unexpected and pursue the opportunities that matter to them — even when they are unsure how others will respond.

“So do that thing you really want to do,” Roy said. “Find out what’s waiting for you on the other side, and don’t let other people’s opinions matter more than your life.”