Graduation Speech : High School

I have been going to school since I was four years old and, that means that I have been attending school twenty to twenty two years, including kindergarten, middle school, high school and now college. As every student, I had my ups and downs in school; I had some failures and some successes. One of the failures that affected me the most and that I will always remember was the time that I was in high school during my junior year. I failed almost all my classes and, I only passed two classes and with a C. In the other hand I had some really good success. The most recent one and the one that I am still happy about is getting my Family Development Credential. We learn from our mistakes and also from our successes, these two times in my life

Day after day I had always regretted not finishing school. Every day that went by Reminded me how much I needed to complete my education. I would remember applying to jobs and always seeing that dreaded sentence saying “must have High school diploma or equivalent’’. The memory of those days still feel as if it was just yesterday that I was without education. Growing up I never realized how much I would need education in my life. Education is needed to overall make a decent living in order to survive. All of the jobs that I was working at the time were either fast food or hard labor. In my early 20’s I soon figured that there were no short cuts to success. If I wanted to make decent money, I need a decent education. I then started researching how to get my General education diploma. Since I was too old to return to high school to finish that was my only option. I remember it was like yesterday walking onto the Community college property where the test was given to inquire about signing up to take it. Everything on campus looked so well put together in my eyes. I knew at that time that I wanted to be a future college student. I felt like I belonged there, but I was missing one thing a GED to qualify for enrollment. Being in the scenery of an actual college environment showed me just how much I was missing and made me more determined to follow up on my dreams of one-day graduating from college. As I neared the testing centers door my heart started pounding. I noticed that I

High school is supposed to be the place where you have fun and a time in your life you’re supposed to enjoy. Movies often trick you into believing that high school is an amazing time in your life and there is nothing but parties and fun. In Bring it on, they portrayed the fun and exciting part of high school cheer-leading, however they intentionally leave out the tough times high school students’ face in school and in their practices. In other popular movies, such as High School Musical the students have no pressures other than the next basketball game. In reality, this doesn 't happen. The constant pressure is affected by the grade level you are in. In high school, students can be classified based on the pressures that are faced in each grade level into the categories of freshman, sophomores/juniors, and seniors. I am here to help you make your high school experience less stressful.

“Congratulations! You have been accepted to Bentley University for fall of 2015!” Words could not express how ecstatic this message made me. As soon as the acceptance email popped up on my phone, I screamed, dropped my backpack, and sprinted over to my track and field teammates to celebrate this triumphant occasion. After years of challenging AP courses, eleven seasons of tiring school sports, and countless extracurricular clubs, I finally felt like all of my hard work had paid off. At that moment, the only thought in my head was “I’m going to Bentley!” My dream — an aspiration I’ve had since my freshman year of high school — was becoming a reality.

Going back to school when you are in your late thirty’s is a huge step. So much has

Every year the percentage of high school graduates going to college after high school rises. But as the number of students increases, so does college tuition. In 2013-14 there was a 9% rise in CSU tuition with the average rise being 7% a year. As College prices rise, more student loans are withdrawn to help pay for increased tuition. Student debt isn’t like credit card debt or medical bills or a mortgage, where if you declare bankruptcy all your debt will be forgiven. Student loans stick with you until they are payed off in full plus interest. As a high school student who hopes to go to college in 2-3 years, I don’t know if I am really ready to assume thousands of dollars in student loans. So although colleges have had to raise prices due

High school was one of the most challenging moments in my life. Not only did I have to deal with the academic pressures and social issues from my peers I had external factors that were heavily impacting me as well. During my junior year my mom separated from her husband and me and my three little brothers ended up staying house to house with close relatives. Shortly after that time at the beginning of my senior year, my mom was sent to prison. In the midst of dealing with all of the demands that any senior deals with I had to also carry the responsibility of taking care of my three siblings. I picked up more hours from my part time job and had help from my stepdad and extended family financially but my little brothers were depending on me psychologically. Times were tough. At times my attention shifted away from my academics and more so to the wants and needs of my siblings. I became so stressed out that I broke down and went to visit my high school counselor. She then recommended me to my school’s district Social Worker.

It was my senior year in high school and graduation was inching closer and closer. My high school principal stood on the stage of our auditorium introducing me as the recipient of the Principals Hall of Fame Award. As he stated proudly “Desiree aspires to return to North Miami Beach Senior High to teach science” it was hard for me to conceal my shock. How had he misinterpreted my future plans into becoming an educator and even more, to returning to my high school? I was sure that this was all a misunderstanding and I would continue on towards becoming the Neonatologist I had always dreamed of, still connected to children but only in the first moments of their lives. Little did I know, my principal was more in tuned to my destiny than I thought. I look back on this moment and it supports my belief that education has always been my calling.

College hasn’t really been much of a choice for me—same way for walking the stage at graduation in high school. Yeah the “option” to opt out has “always” been there, but God forbid I get to make my own choices as an adult by my mother (but that’s something else entirely). My relatives’ continuous badgering, threats, and my patience running out after fifteen years of their actions “convinced” me to start to college anyways. I mustn’t leave out the fact that I also convinced myself that if I started college early, I would potentially graduate around the same time as one of my favorite cousins and one of my friends. I started taking dual credit courses in high school to shut my mother up about advanced schooling, ended up liking the teachers

In 2010, Grant High School, set out to improve (Lambertson 42-43). This school quickly went from being in the worst 5% of schools in Michigan to the superior 92% (Lambertson 43-45). This school poured effort into its programs to try to bring up test grades (Lambertson 42-45). Amazingly, Grant High School brought its average ACT score up 2.4 points in around three years (Lambertson 45). However, in the end, was this school successful? Were its students prepared to succeed?

High school teachers try to explain what college is like, but it 's hard to imagine until you actually start college classes. I 've learned that college has some similarities to high school but overall, it is a completely different atmosphere. Entering college, you will see a major change in the way that you are treated. Unlike high school, you are treated as an adult. Your professors give you the responsibility that you never had before, such as doing your homework or not, allowing you to leave class without asking, and most importantly, giving you the choice to come to class or not. However, a lot of people take advantage of not having to go to class every time but being in class is very important, especially in EN 101. You don 't miss out on the notes that the professor gives, you get time with your classmates to evaluate each others writing, you have time to talk to your professor and ask questions, you get to see examples of papers which will give you ideas and kick start your drafting process, and most of all you aren 't wasting the hundreds of dollars that you paid for the class. I encourage you to do your very best to make it to each class, because I promise it will ease a lot of stress and you will do better academically.

When you think of students in college you think of hard homework assignments, long essays with short due dates, the last minute studying for exams and of course the partying that everyone looks forward to when it comes to being in college. Do you ever think about what happens when you don’t do the homework, not turn in the essay on time and do horrible on the exams and party a little too much? When this happens, grades tend to fall and when grades tend to fall it usually means you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, and when you’re paying thousands of dollars for an education most people can’t afford to take college as a game being played. For most students they don’t have a choice but to drop out because of all these outcomes.

High school seniors are typically in 17 to 19 years old. Because these students are relatively young and sometimes inexperienced, society often views them as naïve. Ironically, this same society pressures them to make critical life decisions. For instance, the majority of these students must determine whether to attend college or not. The students who do end up choosing college as their next step in life must then carefully select a major associated with their desired future career. Only a few students lean toward majors that match their passions. However, why do the rest of the students end up choosing the “prosperous” majors even if they are not passionate about it? The root of this dilemma lies in how society shows favoritism for “prosperous” majors, such as science, math, technology, political science, and business majors. Since society perceives them as the ideal majors and pressure students into choosing these majors. Because parents have a position of authority, they also play a significant role in this process and may even manipulate their child into choosing what they think might be best for them.

Dear graduates, just between us, tell me: are you done with High School? Are you ready to move on to new endeavors? I thought so. Perhaps some of you were ready months ago, right? Or even some of you thought that you were already ready when I was your soccer coach in Middle School! I promise I won’t tell that to Mr. Johnson or Mrs. Heilman. / However, on the other hand, that is how life works. Our life is full of temporary things. You keep moving on to the thing as the years pass.

When did you decide your major in a university? Some people find their dreams when they’re kids, and for them this question is meaningless. I chose my major when I was in a senior year of high school. To tell the truth, in Japan, this is late. In Japan, students have to state a major when they apply for a university, and majors hold their own enrollment examinations. This means that high school students have to finish deciding their major while they are in high school. In order to be ready for this, teachers ask high school students their first, second and third choices of universities and majors right after starting their freshman, and then they will study for the enrollment examinations, which is the biggest purpose. What if students cannot decide these major yet? They probably choose well-known universities and interdisciplinary majors. However, most students are careless about how much the decisions mean to their lives. If they have specific plans or views of their lives, they can begin preparing for the next steps that mean they are able to be a few steps ahead of other students. More preparing has a lot of worth. Therefore, the best way to succeed in Japan is thinking about an educational decision early because of the better quality of study, the connection among majors, universities and jobs, and the correlation between majors and our personalities.