I hate high school. I will always hate high school. I hate all of the work we have to do and the endless amount of hoops we have to jump through. The things I hate most about high school are the teachers, the students, and the work. So, pretty much everything. Adults are always telling me that one day that will all change and that I will look back on this time as the best time of my life. They’re wrong, I will never look at high school that way. I had to deal with all of this in order to graduate. I complained and I fussed. I yelled and I procrastinated. But here I am, 13 days away from graduation. I jumped through the hoops, did most of the work, and all of it for what? A piece of paper? That one piece of paper will define the rest of my life.
Many of you are probably thinking at this point that this entire speech will be negative, and you aren’t that far off. But, within the past few weeks I have bonded with another student here. This student has taken it upon herself to try and make me think positively. It’s a hard process, but she hasn’t given up on me yet and she has inspired me to try and be a better person. Alyssa, you have changed me. You have tried to meet all of my negatives with positives, and now, when I
think negative thoughts, most of the time I think there could be a positive in there somewhere. I would like to thank you for all of the hard work you have put in, and the fact that you believed in me being positive when everyone else, myself included, had given up. I can only hope to be as positive as Alyssa is one day.
Looking back there is a small, very, very small, part of me that wishes I had participated more, that I had looked at more things in a positive way, but we can’t change the past only the future. Many of you in here have often asked me why. Why don’t I participate? Why do I hate everyone? I honestly don’t have a good answer for those questions, the best answer I can give you is 6 long years ago I was diagnosed with depression. This illness has affected my life since, but I have worked hard to be in the place I am now, which still isn’t the happiest person, but I’m getting there.
