Graduation Speech: First Generation College Students

A higher education has been an important priority in my life. While I realized a high school education was important, my parents expected more. They said if I wanted to succeed in life, a college education was something that I could not live without. What they don’t tell you is how exhausting and confusing the process is to get even into.

Hi Ms.Barks, I am not sure if you remember me ( EAP 121,Winter 2015),just want to tell you I am done with ENG 101 and to thank you for the permit!!! It was very interesting expirience ( Bixby was my teacher),however I passed and moving on.This is my last quarter in Edcc , I am taking summer off and will be attending Shoreline community college this fall.Again,I just wanted to thank you for being supportive of me and allowing me to get closer to my goal!!!. I was very fortunate to have you as my teacher!!! Have a great summer!!!

Have you ever felt the pain knowing you and the people beside you might not be there tomorrow? Have you ever known the feeling of having your family oceans away? Although I have never felt anything close to that, I have empathy for those who have. I feel others should realize all of the Veteran’s pain, and their sacrifice, just for us! For our Freedom! Freedom of Education, of Speech, of Choice and many more. I say “ Thank you.” to the Veterans. Yet, it’s not just the Veterans that make sacrifices.

Throughout life people go through so many adversities. Whether it be good or bad there is always something that arises out of the situation. One of the most thrilling, but yet frightening events to take place throughout someone’s life would be graduation. For many people, graduating from high school is an objective. It takes a lot of time, effort, and determination to accomplish that goal. For others graduation is the end of high school, and the beginning of a new chapter in life. When graduated people feel as if adulthood has begun. In the long run, graduating opens a lot of opportunities for people to thrive.

America's gift to our generation is that we have so many opportunities. We have the freedom and safety to pick what we want to do in life. We don't have to go to sleep worrying about if someone is going to come invade our house. We also get great education. Even tho people don't like going to school they should be thankful because a lot of kids don't have schools or can't afford to go to them. The stuff you learn at school will help you a lot with your future like if you want to work at a store than math will help you with the money or if you want to be a teacher than you can go to college and learn to be a teacher. Safety is something we should all be thankful for because a lot of countries have to worry about being safe. We don't have

II. Main Point (state as a single declarative sentence): The progress that I have made helped me lead up to writing well-developed essays. The main reason I believe my essays are improved because of the time I take on my pre-writing.

During our lives, most of us have hated getting up early. Whether we as humans enjoy mornings or not, we’re always looking forward to that unforgettable day. That special is high school graduation for me. Graduation is a ceremony that recognizes students that have excelled through school. Graduation was one of the best days of my life, perhaps even better than the day that I started college. There is no other day like graduation where there comes this feeling of success, achievement, and excitement.

In the commencement speech entitled “This is Water,” the speaker came to highlight to the graduates at the commencement ceremony, what the “real world “was like because he thought they are not alert enough to know. He made reference to this through the anecdote at the beginning where the two young fish didn’t know what water was and of course water is life to fishes. Therefore, the speaker found it necessary to tell what life was really about through a commencement speech because of his opinion that they may have limited knowledge concerning it. In paragraph 6 of his speech, he states “The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what ‘day in, day out’ really means. There happen to be whole large part of adult

Colin Powell once said, "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." The secret to success is preparation; however, preparation for college does not come easy, and there is only so far you can go by preparing yourself. I tried that, and if you look at my first college semester grades you can see that did not work. High school really is only there to prepare you for college; however, not everyone goes to college, and there is only so far you can go with a high school diploma. You really have to go to college to succeed, but when you come to college everyone is on different levels academically. Some come to college not even knowing what they want to major in. That is absolutely inexcusable of the high school system, which should better prepare students for college and their future careers.

once in college, Rose explained “all in all there was a dreary impotence to the years, and isolation, and a deep sadness about my father” (44).

Wow, I dedicated my lifetime and knowledge to a company for fourteen years, without warning I find myself unemployed without a degree! I thought the company that I worked for would be there forever. I assumed that the commitment, dedication and knowledge would be enough; I never considered that one day the company would cease to exist. I never attempted to complete my degree after taking this job, I was told that a degree would never impact my employment or the pay; looking back I realize that was flawed thinking. I find myself enrolling in school at the age of forty eight, needing a degree, in order to take care of my family. My children will be entering college in the next year; I will need to be in a position financially to ensure that happens. In this paper, I will share the challenges that I will face by returning to college, I have narrowed the many challenges and these are the two, which I believe will impact me the most.

By taking the first step and acquiring a college education I am beginning the next necessary phase towards a rewarding future. This process is indispensable in providing a means to a lucrative future for me, or anybody for that matter, who is determined to stay focused and complete the work required. By choosing to continue on to four year degree, my college education will provide me with many opportunities and clear the path towards financial security, independence and self satisfaction upon completion. I am experiencing a greater understanding about my marketable skills while I assemble a noteworthy resume. Because of the experiences I have received in college so far, I have gained a competitive advantage in the labor market. Do to the assorted experiences, classes and instructors I have had the opportunity to interacted with in college, I am prepared to work in any environment whether it is customer service in a credit union, to bartending, as well as training staff for a restaurant while I finish up my education. My college years, so far, has provided me a unique opportunity to engage in areas which I would never entertained an interest in before. At present, a college education is paramount to procuring a position in many industries. I have noticed, in many instances, a degree from college is a minimum requirement for most employment opportunities.

Coming in as a freshman I did not understand the point of soundings. I remember sitting in the FAC, and hoping the soundings was not going to last for a long time. We all did not know what to expect. I was surrounded by a group of freshman who were also experiencing soundings for the first time too. Not only were they trying to adjust to the transition of high school to college, but also the trying to get to know other classmates. At the end of the first Soundings, I had to admit that I actually enjoyed watching the performance. In the back of my head I was still thinking how I was going to find time to attend six events. As I kept attending the different Sounding events each and every one were interesting to be in their own way. I thought to myself that maybe after all attending six was not going to be that bad. Soundings became not just a class that I had to attend to get credit for. It opened my eyes and influenced me personally, my study in my major, and my future plans.

When I decided to go back to college and get my degree, I was so determined to get started, I really didn’t think about what it would entail. Being ambitious and motivated, I decided to take four (4) classes on top of a busy schedule. Although the classes are divided into two classes each eight weeks it’s still a lot of work on a full-time schedule. I work full-time in the federal government as a Specialist Assistant to the Director in the Office of Legislation and I take care of my eighty-two (82) year old mom and seventeen (17) year old son. I also commute from Germantown to DC every day and most nights I don’t get home until 7:30 at night. I never knew what I was getting myself into I was just excited to get started. When I went to Frederick Community College, I took four (4) classes and received all A’s and made the Dean’s list but I took classes on campus. Given the fact that I received A’s in the past I just assumed that I could take four classes again and have the same result.

It’s crazy to believe that your life can change in a blink of an eye. Graduating high school you think about freedom and getting to do whatever you want. After walking the stage my life has changed immediately, responsibilities came across my path. I had to learn how to grow up and take responsibilities the hard way, working hard to save up money to pay for my college courses. That’s part of life trying, to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong, trying to figure out how to deal with emotions. From the past semesters I have had so many stressful moments to the point where I sometimes felt like giving up, but with the support of my family boosting up my self-esteem helped me make it through my freshman year of college. Life is like a rollercoaster you experience many ups and downs but in the end it’s worth the ride.