Commencement

Hello fellow class of 2022. I am honored to be speaking to you today. Now I thought alot about what kind of speech I wanted to give. I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell you 10 lessons I learned, a cliche, or what made high school worth it. Thinking through all of this I realized I was tired. So I did what I do best and took a nap to think about it. You can ask anyone in my classes if they’ve ever seen me take a nap. I’ve slept in every class at least once in highschool. I do not do it because I am incapable of learning. I do it simply because I am tired. I’ve been told many times by many different teachers that if I don’t start staying awake I am going to fail. I have gotten detentions for it and been kicked out of class. 

Well here I am giving my last ever high school english assignment. I infact did not fail because of all my naps. My advice to you is make sure you get a good night’s sleep the night before a test. Or don’t, because I never did and here I am. I know to some it may seem unfair or dumb that I got away with it. Frankly I don’t know how I did. Ever since we were kids we were told how hard highschool was going to be. I was in my 8th grade english class being scolded almost everyday that “These things won’t fly in highschool. High School is where it all counts.” The way Oakhill middle school painted the picture of highschool was all the teachers were drill sergeants. I do not know why they felt the need to use this scare tactic but they did. I was so nervous about what was to come in highschool. Scared I wouldn’t pass. Highschool honestly was easy though and set me up for failure. It was easy for the most part except english. I was never stuck to any really strict deadlines. I knew if I didn’t complete an assignment on time that it didn’t matter because I had a two week window to turn things in. Then those two weeks would turn into more if necessary. In college I will not have that opportunity to turn in work late. I won’t have time for mid class naps. I will have to follow strict deadlines. That is scary. I know it’s nobody’s fault but my own. I just want to do well in the future. 

So before I go, on my last day of highschool. For this last english paper I am turning in late. I wanted to give a few pieces of advice for incoming high schoolers. 1. Procrastination is inevitable and we all do it. Just don’t wait until some random tuesday to turn in your last assignment. 2. Take naps. Naps are my secret key to success, just not in English 4. 3. Rely on yourself. You can do it. 4. Don’t give up. There may be times where you feel it’s best to toss in the towel and just quit. Don’t do it. It won’t be worth it. 5. Show up. This may seem obvious but in order to succeed you have to actually be there. If theirs one thing I learned from highschool it is that procrastination is not a good thing. Moving forward onto whatever life has to offer I plan on trying my hardest not to procrastinate and strongly urge everybody listening to this to do the same. And lastly I want to thank the teachers for never giving up on me even though I didn’t always put in the effort.

“NTU Graduation” by Nottingham Trent University is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.