My Journey Through High School

Hello English IV Class of 2022. . . and Mr. Young. Today you sit in room 126 while I sit at home talking to you through my screen in only my pjs. It’s crazy how we all went to the same school and went to the same classes but yet we all have completely different career choices. Some of us are absolutely set on what we want to do and some are still undecided on their career choice and maybe even college choice. Some also have decided that college and maybe even graduating high school just isn’t for them. We all came here at the same time all starting from square one and now, 4 years later, we’re all leaving on completely different paths. In between the first day of our freshman year to right now we went through many experiences, all completely different from one another. These experiences shaped us and made us into who we are right now. Today I’d like to share some of my experiences and why they shaped me into the person I am today. 

I came to Oak Hill as a new student as well as a new citizen of Maine so coming to Oak Hill was an extra fresh start for me. My work ethic was poor as was my motivation to succeed in school (it still is). Basically I suck at doing anything I don’t want to do (weird right?). I did okay for about the first 1 or 2 months but that was a common occurrence for me. After every low performance year of school I had I’d tell myself: “Okay this year you’re gonna try super hard to get good grades and be super smart and you’re gonna keep doing that and succeed”. And it actually does work for about 1-2 months but then I lose motivation to do, you know, the stuff I didn’t like doing. I actually just finished my work from freshman year last semester. I have severe ADD that went undiagnosed for most of my life and I thought I was just stupid for the longest time. I still struggle with work and procrastinate a lot but I’m doing better. I’m actually submitting this Commencement Address Speech along with like 20 other assignments to Mr. Young last second (sorry Mr. Young).

To distract myself from the inevitable deadlines, I joined some music classes. I probably wouldn’t have even done music if it wasn’t for my girlfriend. I started with just chorus because singing was the only thing that I didn’t need to learn since it was basically just speaking on pitch for me. I slowly got myself interested in other instruments like piano and guitar and then I decided to join rock band. It was just a hobby at first but as time went on I began to get really interested in music. I actually decided to make my major music a week after applying for colleges. What I noticed is how well I was able to do in music compared to all the other things. People would actually get mad at me whenever I picked something up so fast it’s kinda funny. I always used to think I’m a lot dumber than I actually am because I was never good at any subjects in school and I could never focus in class. But Finding music helped me discover my passion and work ethic I never had. It was especially clear when I saw how much farther I was progressing compared to everyone else in music class in such a short amount of time. What I’m trying to say is everyone has their own thing that they’re good at and while I suck at doing anything required for life I’m really good at music. Besides the flute. 

It took me 18 years to figure out my passion and it might take others even longer but everyone has something that they’re good at and no one should settle for less than that. If you have something you enjoy in life, hold it close to you. Make sure you make the most of your life, because you only have about 50 years left before you’re old and wrinkly and about half that time is gonna be spent sleeping anyways. Life is long but it’s also short in the grand scheme of things. Money can’t buy happiness. Well it can actually, but it can’t buy happiness if you’re dead because you worked too hard to try and get it. If there’s anything I’ve taken away from these years spent it’s this, When life gives you lemonade, make lemons, life will be all like ,”Whaaaat?” Just kidding, This is my commencement speech, Thank you for listening class of 2022 and Mr. Young.

“Graduation Caps” by Captain Skyhawk is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.Copy text

“Fork in the Road” by Flicktone is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.Copy text

“Homework” by Svadilfari is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.Copy text