Commencement Speech

As we end the year, and the last twelve years of our educated lives, it is hard not to reflect on the past. The good, the bad, and everything in between. I remember walking in the first day of high school, the best clothes my closet had to offer, excited for what high school had in store. Fast forward two years later and I couldn’t care less if sweats were the go to outfit everyday and the only thing I could look forward to was the day I walk across the stage and get handed a diploma.

High school teaches you many lessons, some intended and some unintended, positive and negative. I learned that waking up an hour early to look perfect is not worth it, stressing about work only makes it worse, and always look for the positives in every situation you either choose to do, or are forced to do. To be honest, I’ve learned more life-lessons throughout my years of high school rather than education lessons. I hope to be able to take these life lessons with me as I continue my education at college. Lessons on how to treat one another, when to speak up and when to just listen and learn from it, and everything else you can learn from being around all aspects of different lives for the past twelve years, mainly focusing on the last four, when you truly learn the most about others and life in general.

There are some opportunities I would go back and take if I had the change, like not regretting going to a practice every day, or trying to get out of certain events. Although there are many opportunities I am beyond happy I took, like being apart of a team for the last four years, and sometimes taking the time away from school and homework to actually do something enjoyable with friends no matter how much work we all had on our plates at the time.

The number one thing I will take from high school is not the education I got, but the memories I’ve made with the ones around me, the good and the bad. Without these memories and the people who have been with me through all of these, I would not be who I am today. I would most likely be a future high school graduate, but I would not have the character I have today without all the factors I’ve learned along the way.

Photo by vernon.hyde on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND