Commencement Adress

  Commencement Address 

Hello, My name is Julie Mooney, and welcome friends and family to the graduation ceremony of the class of 2023! I have been living in Sabattus, Maine all my life, I don’t remember much but I remember being a kid and waiting with my mom and dad at the end of the driveway for the big yellow school bus to pick me up for my first day of kindergarten. My mom was crying, and nervous because our driveway was passed on the test run. She wanted my day to be perfect. I’m sure those same types of emotions are filling the room tonight. But I think the biggest emotion in the room today is pride, every one of you should be extremely proud of yourself for sitting here today. We have all been through our ups and downs, and we made it. I would like each and everyone one of you to smile at your peers and thank the people who have helped you to get here today. Shout out to my mom for letting me sit in her office all the time.

 A huge chapter in our lives is closing. I think because of this another feeling we have today is deja vu. I know I felt deja vu knowing I’ll never have to do a Membean test again. But for real I have been feeling deja vu since the beginning of May knowing we aren’t going to have high school in our lives anymore. I feel I have grown tremendously from being a new incoming freshman to a captain on the field hockey team. I think we should all lead by example. Every single one of you shines. We have been through a lot, especially getting almost all of our high school years messed up due to covid, but these last four years have seemed like the longest and shortest of our lives. Long because of the nights we stayed up writing and fixing essays to pass grade checks, and short because of the lifelong friendships and connections we have made. Even if your biggest accomplishment through high school is getting through the tough drama in sophomore year you should be so proud of yourself.

The last word I would like to emphasize this evening is the word honesty. Honesty is being truthful and sincere to someone. I think nowadays and as we have grown up it is hard to decipher what is true and what is not, whether it is a post on tik tok or even a face-to-face conversation with someone. My advice to everyone in this room is to stay true to yourself. Know matter the downs you are in, I truly believe if you are honest and kind to someone your time will come, and karma is a real thing. 

 I believe each and every one in this graduating class will go off to do amazing things, and just remember if you are going through something tough, Pitbull has been there and done that and so can you. Congratulations class of 2023! Thank you. 

“graduation” by Sean MacEntee is licensed under CC BY 2.0.