Connection myConn = null;
PreparedStatement myPrepStmt = null; //<-- PreparedStatement, NOT Statement
ResultSet myRs = null;

String dbUrl = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test2";
String dbUser = "user1";
String dbPassword = "test2";

try {
  myConn = DriverManager.getConnection(dbUrl, dbUser, dbPassword);
  myPrepStmt = myConn.prepareStatement("select * from user where user_id = ?");
  //above this is boilerplate text that is repeated every time I work with JDBC.
  myPrepStmt.setInt(1, id);
  myRs = myPrepStmt.executeQuery();

  while(myRs.next()) {
    value = myRs.getString("first_name");
    firstName = myRs.getString("first_name");
    lastName = myRs.getString("last_name");
    System.out.println("First name: " + myRs.getString("first_name") + " Last name: " + myRs.getString("last_name") + " ID: " + myRs.getInt("user_id"));
  }
  //below this is boilerplate text that is repeated every time I work with JDBC.
} catch (Exception e) {
  System.out.println("PROBLEM");
  System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
} finally {
    if (myRs != null) {
        try {
          myRs.close();
        } catch (SQLException e) { /* ignored */}
    }
    if (myPrepStmt != null) {
        try {
          myPrepStmt.close();
        } catch (SQLException e) { /* ignored */}
    }
    if (myConn != null) {
        try {
          myConn.close();
        } catch (SQLException e) { /* ignored */}
    }
}