Graduation Speech: We are Winners

Parents, family and friends, faculty, Class of 2012:

Tonight we celebrate the completion of 12 years of schooling and look toward what will be in store for us in the future. It has been a long road for most of us, and a difficult one for some, but the fact is, we made it. Tonight we are all winners. However, I would like to talk for just a few minutes about losing.

Throughout history there were many people we consider winners, who, in fact, lost many times in their lives. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he had "no good ideas." Even though he hit 714 home runs, Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times. Thomas Edison performed more than 1100 unsuccessful experiments before inventing the light bulb. He said, "I found out 1100 ways how not to do things." Even the great Secretariat lost his first race.

I can remember a time when I so desperately wanted to win, but I didn't. My fourth grade class was having a spelling bee. Every student had to stand at the front of the room with his or her own mini chalkboard. When Mrs. Reed, my teacher, said a word, everyone had to spell it on their chalkboard at the same time. If you misspelled the word, you were forced to sit down at your desk and keep quiet. At first I did not see the enjoyment in the exercise. In fact, I can distinctly remember drawing on my chalkboard while my teacher explained the rules of the spelling bee. It wasn't until I heard the words "Tootsie Roll Pop" that I looked up and saw the bright red cherry Tootsie Roll Pop that would be given to the winner. In fourth grade there was little I would not do for a Tootsie Roll Pop. The spelling bee that was about to start all of a sudden became important too me. My hand was ready to spell out any word that came out of my teacher's mouth.

I was a spelling machine! My teacher kept putting up new words, and I kept knocking them down. I wanted that Tootsie Roll Pop. I was going to get it if it killed me. My teacher had given us more than 20 words, and I spelled every one of them correctly. The problem was, so had someone else. Elaine was her name. She was all that stood between me and my Tootsie Roll Pop.