Graduation Speech

Think of the first time you rode a bike.

You start off with the training wheels and it teaches you the mechanics like steering and turning and pedaling the bike. Some of you were courageous and thought after a couple of hours you could take off the training wheels and give it a shot and go for it. Others would keep the training wheels on until they were 100% sure that they could ride without them. This was our freshman year. We are in a new school, new environment, new people, new teachers, new everything. The first few weeks were figuring out your schedule your classes and certainly who were your friends in each of your classes so you knew at least one person.

These were our training wheels. Freshman year was all about learning the mechanics of riding and just solely about the fundamentals. Then when everyone thinks they are good enough to ride without the training wheels, you take them off. You feel confident and cocky as if it is going to be a piece of cake and for some of us it was. You pedal and pedal as your speed increases and then it hits you, how do I stop? You quickly squeeze the left handle on the bike as hard as you can and then all the sudden you go flying over the handle bars crashing on the ground with some bumps and scratches. This would describe our sophomore year.

We had been at the school one year now and since then we thought we knew everything there was to know about prospect. We were cocky and thought that we owned the school to then realize that there were those massive juniors and seniors that would slap us around still because we are still underclassmen. That was the fall. Feelings great cruising through sophomore year like your riding down the coast of California. You hit that bump and grab that brake and then you hit the ground and that is the realization that you are still an underclassman and that you have a lot more to learn than we already know. What do you do after you fall? You get back up and keep trying and trying until you succeed.

This is your junior year. People say that your junior year is the hardest year of your high school career. There are less classes required to take, you can start doing things the way you want to do them. On top of that you are finding out who you are socially and mentally and what you find interesting. You discover yourself as a person. Then you have to start thinking about college and don’t forget that ACT score you need to do well on.

The stress starts to pile on more about grades and your future and making a difference in your life and others. Lets be honest it gets to be overwhelming.. Questions like this probably ran through your mind. Am I in enough AP classes? Do I have enough friends? Are sports a good thing on a college application? Should I be in service club to up my chances into a university? I know these questions went through my mind once and a while throughout junior year but we got through it. Finally it is senior year and it’s the last year at this school.

Now at this point in riding the bike you are a pro. You’ve been doing it for years and its just a daily routine for yourself. Now you have the freedom to go anywhere you want because you have learned and practiced on your journey. Senior year comes around and to be honest, it is probably the easiest year you will have. By now in second semester you have chosen a college and you have barely any classes required to take anymore so you take classes like foods and world religions.

Things that are interesting but do not require a lot of work. You’re now at graduation and here I am delivering this speech to you as the graduating class of 2014 congratulations!