I want all of you graduates to do me a favor and just look around at your fellow classmates for a few seconds and think about the people you know out there and realize: After all of the parties and once all of the euphoria surrounding graduating has subsided, you are not going to see many of these people ever again. I'm sure it's a comforting though to many of you that you will never see me again, and I've come to terms with that. We are all headed in different directions now. Some of us are going to college, whether it be two-year, four-year, in-state, out-of-state, or whatever. Some are going straight into the workforce, maybe in construction, plumbing, commercial fossil fuel distribution or as Jeff Reynolds puts it so eloquently, "You could go into a life of being a government financial allocation specialist." And some of you are going straight to jail. Right now I'm sure many of you are sitting there with thoughts racing through your head at a mile a minute. Some people are anxious about the future, others are primed to get on the bus for the after-grad party. Some are thinking that they finally have their ticket stamped to leave Purple Lake, which I happen to be thinking right now. Some of you are looking at the clock and wondering how long it will be until I shut-up and get off the stage, I happen to know Goset is thinkin' that right now, aren't you Aynsley? Those kids, like Goset over there, just want their little case which actually doesn't contain a diploma, instead it just has a piece of paper which tells you when to pick it up. To those people out there I say, "Just cool off, I'll be done in a minute, the diploma cases aren't going anywhere, so just be patient!" Though you might not be thinking any of those things right now, I'm sure we are all thinking that we finally made it. Yup, high school is over, but we're not even close to being done. This is just the beginning of the rest of our life and it only gets harder from this point on. You will encounter obstacles at every turn, but you must persevere if you hope to succeed in this world. The key to your success will be to know what everyone expects from you and then you must commit yourself to exceeding those expectations, that is what will set you ahead of the rest.
As our time together draws to a close, I leave LHS with no further anecdotes of wisdom or quotes dealing with success; only the sincere hope that you immersed yourself in the essence of commencement. Everybody, we’ll all be graduates by the time we leave tonight. Let’s enjoy it. Congratulations to the Lee High School Class of 2006.
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, "You are a very special person - become what you are." These words encourage us, the graduating class of 2012, to recognize the goodness and potential in each and every one of us and to go out and excel in the world. We are a diverse group of different aspirations and backgrounds, bound for different corners of the earth to carve out our won individual niches. Before we leave behind Lee Falls High School and each other, we must ask ourselves how we have become who we are.
When I was in elementary school, I loved to read. I was a total nerd back then ... okay maybe I still am, but one thing has changed. Now I don't so much like reading. My favorite poet was Shel Silverstein, who wrote "Where the Sidewalk Ends." He seemed like he was a total hippie, but that's cool because I like hippies. My grandma is a recovering hippie. I like her too. Anyway, Shel Silverstein wrote about the coolest things. He wrote about magical erasers, eating whales and a boy with long hair flying away from people who were taunting him. He captured all of the things that I loved without knowing that I actually loved them. Now you may ask, how does this hippie relate to our graduation? Well, he wrote a poem entitled "Traffic Light" and this is how it goes:
Good evening. Some of you out there may not realize this but those of you who attended Suntime Middle School have been with this guy for the last seven years. I would like to ask you all, not just Suntime Middle School grads and who all else, to join me in thanking Mr. Weather for his patience and dedication to the success of our education over the years. We are the Class of 2000. The first graduating class of the new millennium. The past four years have been pretty wild. We started out as a bunch of rats in a small cage, but as time went by we learned and matured and became big rats in a new small cage, but in any case, the cage door is now opening; the handlers turning us wild things loose. As we leave "Where the Wild Things Are," home to some of the best cat fights, fist fights and food fights this side of the Cascades, I have a little surprise for all of you sitting in front of me here tonight in your caps and gowns … we ain’t seen nothing yet!
In his book, “Oh, the Places You'll Go!” Dr. Seuss famously wrote: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who'll decide where you go.” Friends, family, faculty, and most importantly, fellow graduates, we are gathered here today to celebrate the completion of twelve years of education; a period of time that has filled each and every one of us with an array of emotions and experiences; good, bad, and literally everything in between. Little did we know that these emotions and experiences would one day define and shape us into the people who we are today.
Guys, I thank you. It has been an honor to serve as your class president. Good luck. Now, I am going to make like America Online Instant Messenger and sign off with an L-O-L. Good bye.
Betty Lou is right -- Our achievements of the past four years have been an honor. And so I offer my congratulations to each of you for achieving the honor that comes with high school graduation. Up to this point, high school may be the most exciting and difficult experience of our lives. We've enjoyed the carefree and happy times with WWF-style pep assemblies, dances, Junior T-P nights, and classes with friends. We've had our bad days too, though. The days when we forgot our semester project for C.I. at home, or when we couldn't stop falling asleep and Mr. Gnome made us get up to "open a window." But far worse were the times when we felt alone. We've all had days of personal crisis when we've felt rejected by those around us or alienated from them. Hopefully, we were fortunate enough to have had a friend come rescue us from isolation, but perhaps not.
Graduation is an exciting time in a person’s life, especially a high school graduation. When I think of family and friends gathering together to celebrate a joyous occasion, I feel I accomplished my strongest goal. It never occurred to me that graduation would be the end of my youth and the start of adulthood. Graduating from high school was an influential event that gave me an altered outlook on my existence. Life before graduation, preparing for graduation day, and commencement day overwhelmed me for reality.
Im worried about a lot of things and one is seeing the real world you are no longer a kid you have to be on your own and i'm scared that the college that i want to go to might not want me ,but let's put that aside first after reading 100 things to do after graduation it made me realize that i want to get my drivers license so if i get pulled over i could have the right information i need instead of going to jail or getting a ticket and i want to be able to tell people i did something useful instead of ruining my life and start out strong.
High school. I never realized it would bring so many changes. As I walked on to campus my freshman year, my mindset was the same as it was in eighth grade; the young are invincible. And although I was excited to come to high school I had many fears. Would the classes be too hard, would I make new friends, what could I become involved in, and most of all -- what if I get lost? All of these fears eventually subsided and I, along with all of you, found the right classes and the right teachers. We all made new friends. We all got involved in something. During my freshman year, innocence surrounded me and although eventually my shell would crack, not until this year have I broken through. This year I decided that it is time to soar on my own. Graduation is the beginning of a new flight for all of us, the class of 1997.
I did not get to know many of you. So, I cannot be certain of how you feel, but, as for me, this year has been, by far, the most enjoyable and eye opening one of my high school career. Enjoyable because of the new, interesting friends I've made and of the fun times I've had, and eye opening because of my being forced to look towards the future. Not just day dreaming and imagining about the rest of my life, but finally having to sit down and make some definite decisions concerning it. For me and many of you, colleges have had to be applied for and decided on and scholarships filled out. Some of you have been looking into vocational schools or the military, while others will be going straight into the work force. Whatever your case may be, we've all had one thing in common in that we've been planning for our futures. Since the decisions we make now or soon will impact the rest of our lives, I'd like to take this time to share some advice with you all.
Class of 2012, tonight is the last time we will share together for many years. After tonight, we will begin a new chapter in our lives. This chapter will lead us away from each other, but the memories we've shared will continue to stay. The years behind us have been full of challenges and rewards; these experiences will be there to guide us as we branch out into the world.
Good evening graduates, family and faculty. We made it! This moment is everyone’s and tonight I hope that all of us can feel as victorious as I do, for our success is your success too. Graduates, I want you to think back to your happiest moment in your journey at Montclair State University. Hold that thought close to your heart. For many of us, it will be successfully completing our first semester or securing that internship that you really wanted. For others like myself, my happiest moment happened even before I drove up Valley Road to MSU. You see, I had dreamed of that moment for the past two years. The moment where I would hold the acceptance letter in my hand.
You know, it is really strange how quickly time passes, after spending my whole childhood wishing I was an adult, now here we are and it's a little hard to grasp. It feels like just yesterday I was standing here in the same position at eighth grade graduation. Ahh, middle school, such a joyous time for all of us, free of maturity and not a care in the world. The biggest decisions I ever had to make then was deciding which group to stand with at passing time and choosing which shirt from my extensive collection of Stussy and No Feat apparel to wear. We were all naive to the danger that lurked just around the corner. We were unaware that the carefree world we lived in was about to come crashing to the ground in a blazing inferno of real school work and responsibility ... otherwise known as high school.
Good evening parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and friends. I would like to thank you all for coming to this very special day. I know how proud you must be. As we have grown over the years, there are many stages we all have gone through. From learning our shapes and colors, to getting our first kiss in middle school, or how about explaining to our parents why we skipped school because the principal called home. As we remember these days, things that we've done will be with us forever. But this is only the start of our journey. The day has come where we say goodbye to the big yellow buses, assemblies, assigned seating, and attendance policies. Are you really gonna miss it? For some of us maybe not right away. But eventually we will so for us to be here it is not necessarily an achievement, but a privilege. All of us have been in school over half our lives. To graduate is one more step we've taken in our lives.