The Speech

Hello fellow classmates.  We have each experienced a lot over the years. Whether it be willingly or forcefully, we have all lived through lots since starting as freshmen at Oak Hill. I would like to tell you all about some important moments I have experienced in my high school career. 

Before I started at Oak Hill, I was at Monmouth Middle School. A quite dreadful place for me. I was degraded and looked down upon every day. I would be told I wasn’t smart enough to succeed at anything in life.  They didn’t think I could make it to the first day of high school, pass middle school, or become anyone even remotely successful. None of those people knew me or didn’t really know me. These people who didn’t know me told me to end my life. This harassment was constant and consistent from 4th through 8th grade. In 8th grade, I decided that I couldn’t go to that school anymore. That place had nothing left for me to go back to. Through the summer I thought about schools nearby that I could go to. Oak Hill was the closest, I remember thinking to myself, “Anything is better than what I have here.” And with that, I had a letter that the superintendent had signed allowing me to go to Oak Hill. 

My first day at Oak Hill. I was so lost.  I didn’t know who to talk to, who was safe to talk to. I changed my name when I first got here to Sam Estabrook, Sam because it was a safe gender-neutral name, and Estabrook because it was my mom’s maiden name. I changed my name for the purpose of forcing people to judge my character not what they had heard about my name from their friends from Monmouth. Sitting at the same table as me was an individual.  I obviously didn’t know them, but they looked friendly, so I tried to socialize. That is how I met Marissa Smith. From that day forward I knew I had a friend, a truly essential part to getting through high school. Having a friend like Marissa is one of the most important things I could have done for myself in high school.

In my first year of high school, I had grown more as a person than I had in years. Teachers were very supportive and people around me had shown me much kindness, more kindness than I had ever experienced previously in school. 

After freshman year was over high school when by really fast. The entire nation was hiding behind masks all of sophomore year, which made it go by super fast. I passed all my classes with above 3.0’s. Junior year passed by rather fast as well, I had made up for all the classes I had failed because of covid and was closer to success than I have ever been and I almost wasn’t ready for it to be over, I had thrived so much in high school that I had started to enjoy the experience. 

Senior year seemed impossible for me to ever get to because of previous doubts about my success but I made it, I got here just like the rest of you. Even as a freshman, I would tell myself that if I got to this stage of my life that I would stop beating myself up so hard. I’ve done my membean, presented speeches ( of the 2 I’ve had to do), and completed all of my assignments. And if you are sitting here today you likely have too so good job to me, good, job to you, good job to the whole class of 2023, we made it.

“High School Equivalency 2022 Graduation Ceremony” by COD Newsroom is licensed under CC BY 2.0.