Commencement Speech: How Far We’ve Come

For starters I would just like to thank administration and all of my fellow graduates for letting me present this speech today. It truly means a lot. Four years ago, myself and all of you, as my classmates, walked through the doors of the high school for the first time as a high school student. This was a scary and nerve racking day for myself as I am sure it was for many of you guys too. We had just been through a very rough eighth grade year, due to a lot of behavioral issues with our class and teachers just not liking us that much. I was very nervous not only for myself, but for all of you guys in my class, to enter the high school because this was not middle school anymore but a whole new environment and I did not want the high school to also hate us. However, over the course of our four years in high school, not only myself, but us as a class dramatically changed for the better by now, the end of our senior year. I am up here today to talk about our growth as a class and how proud I am of all of you guys, my fellow classmates. Going through high school with such a positive environment and staff members who were one hundred percent dedicated to us students, truly changed my life and my outlook on life as well as the lives of my classmates.

Freshmen year jumped us right into the grind of high school. Nobody was used to the stress of what high school can bring, which made freshmen year a huge challenge for myself and I could tell, for most of you guys as well. The maturity level of our class freshmen year was very low and I know for a fact that many of the seniors and upper classmen hated us. Our class got into a lot of trouble freshman year and I am surprised more teachers didn’t like us. I am so very thankful for all the teachers at Oak Hill that helped us through our freshmen year and put up with us. They truly wanted us to succeed which is what allowed not only myself, but all of you guys, to make it through the pain and stress of freshman year. All of us I am sure, were so relieved to be done freshman year but at the time, high school seemed like it was going to last forever and take so long to graduate.

Heading into our sophomore year, we got to watch the new freshman go through exactly what we had the year before. This was comforting because it meant that we were no longer the newbies and we were getting into the groove of high school. Over the summer, our class as a whole matured even more from freshman year and it showed heading into sophomore year. Through the course of sophomore year, more and more teachers started talking to us about our futures and getting ready for life after high school which seemed so odd since it felt like we had just started high school and it also felt like we were not even close to being done high school.

Before we knew it, our class was heading into our junior year which meant we were no longer under-classmen. This was a crazy new step for us. However, along with that, came preparing for the SAT’s and starting to think about college and what our plans were for after high school. Again, this was a big step that we had to go through, but we all made it through our junior year in one piece and believe it or not, that meant we were becoming seniors. Starting our senior year last fall I could hardly believe that us as a class had made it to senior year. It seemed like we had just started high school but yet here we were, starting senior year. Luckily, we had lots of help from both Guidance and the English department in helping us apply to colleges and do scholarship work and various other things. We could not have done it without the staff at Oak Hill there to help us.

Now here we are, sitting at graduation and I am up here talking to all of you. Perhaps the biggest challenge us, as the Class of 2020, have had to conquer is the development of COVID-19 spreading all across the world and forcing schools to close. This meant the last three months of our senior year, instead of getting to spend the most exciting part of high school at the school with each other and everybody else, we had to spend it at home, by ourselves, sitting in front of a computer screen with virtual classes and learning. I know this was very difficult not only for me, but also for all of you guys and the entire class of 2020. I am so proud of us for making it through not only our high school career, but also through this very difficult time of us being separated at the end of our senior year. We have grown so much since the day myself and all of you guys walked through that door of the high school where we would be spending most days of the next four years.

High school changed us from having a very rough ride through middle school, to growing and becoming adults and becoming mature throughout these last four years. We could not have made it this far if it wasn’t for all of us coming together as a class, supporting each other, and having all of the staff at Oak Hill there to provide support in all areas and create such a positive environment for us. No amount of words can express my thanks for the staff and I am so proud of all of you, as my classmates, for being so resilient, and so strong making it through all that we have had to go through. Our high school experience creates a lesson in life that no matter how hard, difficult, or endless something may seem, in the long run it will all be worth it and it will change you for the better and make you stronger for moving on to the next step in life.

Thank you all again for letting me speak in front of you today and for truly making me so proud and happy to be a part of the class of 2020.

Photo By:  Herkie on Foter.com / CC BY-SA