Growing From Mistakes

Commencement Address

Throughout the years of high school, I’ve been through so many different phases, friend groups, hobbies, clubs, and experiences, and I truly believe everything I did helped shape me into who I am. Not everything I involved myself in was a good thing; I made a lot of mistakes and bad choices. But, In the end, I learned from all of it, and all my decisions have led me to where I am, and made me a better person. 

Junior year was a year of change. I fell into a hole of procrastination and laziness. All of my interests dropped off the face of the earth and I no longer reached out to any of my friends to hang out with them or even see how they were doing. At this point, I was in danger of losing everything I’d worked hard for… My friends, my grades, my happiness. The worst part is, I didn’t know what to do or how to get out of it, and I was conscious that it was happening. I would use my life as a metaphor. The one I often used and most vividly remember is saying my life was like a swimming pool on a hot day, except the pool is filled with “sharks and procrastination”. It was a strange period of time, because I knew I had people there for me, and people that wanted to see me, but I turned everyone down. I was only seen at school or on social media occasionally. My hobbies of writing and playing the drums or going on hikes turned into binge watching Grey’s Anatomy for the second time through. I even left my best friend hanging, only seeing her outside of school about three times over the course of a year. 

Nearing the halfway point of my senior year is when I finally saw an out. I took that chance and I ran with it. The downside was, however, having to pick up the pieces of the mess I made of my own life. I had so much school work to do, friends to reach out to, and hobbies to pick back up. I started writing again, and finding new trails to explore with friends, friends that I had just started getting back in touch with. Even if it were just a few more conversations, it was the small amounts of detail that I would thrive off of, knowing my friends were somewhat happy and well made me feel happy and well. When it came to schoolwork, I thought I was done for. With just about a month or so left in the school year, I had 22 assignments that were almost due or already past due… in one class (sorry Mr. Young). Obviously, that is the opposite of ideal. I cranked through everything, though and I got it all done, against the odds. 

 When it came down to it, I learned that not all the bad was actually… that bad. It was like a buffering period in my life. And while I did lose some friends that meant the world to me at the time, I came to the realization that I did not need them, and they were just dragging me down. I realized that it was for the best that I dropped some of my hobbies… there were some that I was just not good at and I guess I needed a rude awakening to see that. I learned better study habits, found new hobbies, and I learned that I really like Grey’s Anatomy. 

Here I am,  still in the process of picking up some pieces, but things now are much easier and much better. Graduating high school, a lifelong dream thus far that we have all worked so hard to achieve. The imagery of a life we’ve worked so hard to live. We all deserve to be able to look back and smile at everything we’ve been through and everything we’ve grown and matured from together.  I’ve never been one to blend into the crowd. I don’t follow everyone else’s opinions. I use my own voice and I have my own beliefs. The biggest piece of advice I can give you is be your own person.  The most important thing I learned in high school is to be someone you’re proud to be.

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