A Commencement Address Like No Other 

Firstly I would like to thank the person who introduced me … For those who don’t know, I’m Silas Dumont. I was an average student and played three sports all four of my years of highschool.  My goals for this speech are to talk about some high school experiences, say some thank you’s, and hope that this is at least three minutes long so I can actually graduate high school. 

I don’t want to say we had the worst highschool experience but it was definitely a memorable one. Whether you played sports / participated in activities or not, your highschool experience was different from what it should have been. We had a taste of highschool by having about a year and half of normal classes. After that life at school changed abruptly due to quarantine and it seemed like highschool was flying by as fast as light speed. From the cohorts to condensed schedules it feels like my connection to teachers and classmates was severed. I know for a fact that some people can relate to having relationships lost or changed. It was crappy for a little while but this past year has been amazing in terms of moving forward from quarantine and restrictions. It was also nice that quarantine and restrictions had gotten immeasurably better in our senior year since it is also supposed to be our best year of highschool. Something memorable for me was that sports effectively never changed. To pick out small details, we had lost spring sports in our sophomore year, we had to wear masks for some seasons, and we had some condensed seasons. I still firmly believe that playing three sports every year was hugely beneficial for me. For social reasons mainly but sports in general had taught me a couple life lessons. Most notably, self-discipline, teamwork, and handling failure. I would like to thank all of my teammates who have pushed me to try harder or forced me to compete with them in practice. Although it may seem superficial to those who choose to spend their time otherwise, it was meaningful for me due to my competitive nature and for the life lessons listed earlier. 

I would like to thank my teachers for being good resources in helping me towards graduation. Whether that was helping me with a simple formative or grading my work the night before eligibility grade checks. Big thanks classmates for any memories we may have shared. I love to reminisce about old experiences that happened in any of my school years. I know I’m going to miss high school but that’s why we have class reunions! Everyone has to grow up at some point and good luck to all my classmates in the next chapter of their lives. We must move on past highschool and make a difference with our lives. High school is just our humble beginnings. Make bank, make a family, and or make yourself successful, whatever you do don’t be settled with highschool graduation. Just like the early Kobe Bean Bryant had famously stated in response to a reporter who asked him why he wasn’t happy being up 2-0 in the 2009 NBA finals; “Job’s not Finished”. The end.

“Graduation” by uonottingham is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.