Stop dreading it.
Write a speech
worth standing up for.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Marcus, and I am Jake's best man, a title I accepted before I understood what it actually required of me. [Pause and look around the room] I have known Jake for fourteen years. In that time, I have watched him make decisions ranging from questionable to genuinely baffling. There was the summer he drove eight hours to a concert, forgot the tickets at home, drove back, and called it a character-building round trip. He arrived at the venue four minutes before the encore. He was proud of himself. That is the man we are celebrating tonight. What I could not have predicted, watching Jake navigate the world on his own terms, was Priya. Since she arrived in his life, Jake reads the whole email before replying. He buys the right size gift bag. He shows up early. I cannot fully explain it, but I have stopped trying. [Raise your glass] To Jake and Priya: may your life together be as good as Jake thinks it already is, and as good as Priya quietly knows it can become.