Never Give Up, You Never Know What’s Waiting For You in the End

Good Morning Class,

I believe most of you know me, but in the event that you don’t, my name is Rylea-Mae Swan and I am a member of the 2018 graduating class of Oak Hill High School. I spent countless hours pondering what it is that I want to say to you guys. I threw around so many ideas and they just didn’t seem to stick. It wasn’t until just last week that I decided what it is I wanted to say. I was sitting in study hall reminiscing over the past four years, and then it hit me; the message I want to deliver to you.

It starts with a little bit of a background on my high school soccer career. Coming in as freshman, I was very timid. The older kids really intimidated me, but somehow I didn’t let that affect how I played. When it came down to teams getting picked, I never imagined that I would be a swinger. I definitely thought I would be on JV, but to my surprise I started out as a swinger, but then spent most of the season playing in varsity games. That season, we weren’t half bad. I don’t necessarily remember our record, but we weren’t horrible. We played hard, but didn’t manage to make it very far. Our season, was cut too short.

Going into my sophomore season, we were very eager to make it to playoffs. We worked our butts off majority of the time at practice. Every once in a while we would have our “lazy” days, but that was seldom. Our work and effort showed in our games, and we ended up having a fairly good season. We did meet our goal of making playoffs, but then fell short and ended up not making it past the first round.

Junior year was a fun one! Mr. Young stepped up as the Varsity coach and we had Ms. Eldridge as our JV coach. Together, they worked to draw our team closer. It has been said that if a team bonds well together, they play well together. Well let me tell ya, that couldn’t be more true. We had a phenomenal season. We made it to playoffs, and we also got the opportunity to play in the MVC Championship game against Madison. I will never forget the MVC game. It was one of my favorite games to play in. We had worked so hard as a team to get to that point, and to come out with the win was the most remarkable feeling. We fell short in the playoffs again, but we couldn’t hang our heads because we played so well as a squad. We communicated well and made nice, crisp passes throughout the season. We were becoming the team that other teams feared.

Senior year of soccer was by far the best season in my career. Our team bonded well, and we played so well together. We strengthened our communication and passes on the field, as well as, our game sense. Everything just seemed to all pull together for us. It was also evident that everyone on the team had the drive to win. Each and everyday we put the work in at practice and it kept us on top for quite awhile. We went undefeated for quite some time, and let me tell you, it’s a feeling like no other going undefeated as long as we did. It was a really big accomplishment for our program since freshman year. We did so well this season that we made it to the MVC Championship game again and we got a by which allowed us to play in the second round of playoffs. Although, we didn’t win either of those games, we still had the best season and record than any other soccer team to go through Oak Hill in a while.

Now you all may be wondering why the heck is she giving a speech about soccer? Or maybe you’re not. But, the morale of me giving the background to my soccer career, is to get across that putting work and effort into what you do can really lead to some positive outcomes. My soccer team and I worked our butts off each year we stepped foot on the field. Some even worked in the off season. It may have taken some time, but we finally made out to have a really good team. Same goes when it comes to school. At some point in time, we’ve all put in some work or effort because we’ve all made it to senior year! We have made it to the last stretch! At times, it may have seemed horrible, and in some instances it actually was, but we’ve made it!

As I conclude my speech, I’d just like to say that I am proud of each and every one of us. We have all made it to one of the bigger milestones in our lives, and I am happy to have done it with all of you by my side. We may not all talk on a daily basis, or we may not talk at all, but we all have one thing in common and that is we made it to senior year. It’s been a long time coming. Most of us have been working to make it to this point since we were four and five years old. It’s crazy that it’s finally here. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Congratulations on making it this far!

Thank You  

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