Graduation Speech : My Family

On February 11th, 2016 I attended the Houston Independent School District’s (HISD) school board meeting. I received a first-hand experience of how educational decisions are made and I also witnessed all the intricacies of the process. An article entitled Understanding Your School Board states that “school boards are entrusted by the public to translate the needs of students into policies, plans, and goals that will be supported by the community” (www.tasb.org). In other words, the board and its members are responsible for making and enforcing essential decisions for the school district. They are ultimately a strong determining factor for their students’ academic success.

On my free days I am usually studying or trying to pay for college by working. It's really difficult trying to manage both workloads at the same time. Trying to help my parents with our financial situation and trying to manage my classes sometimes makes me wonder what I'm suppose to fight for the most. It's going to be even more difficult for my parents when my two siblings are going to be in college. When it comes to managing these two lives I prepare myself and work hard as much as possible. I am at a phase in my life where I have to deal with situations and just move on from it because that is what keeps me moving.

Some people have asked to read the commencement address I delivered this morning to the 2013 graduates of Butler University. So here it is.

I am “that” person because I have always been very involved in my school community. I am in the orchestra and band, I am a member of Best Buddies, and I am a member of my student council. Within these groups, I have been the president of the orchestra for 3 years, I was the shadow president and social media chair for Best Buddies, I was the secretary of my junior class, and I am the secretary of the student senate. I have also been a member of the Unified volleyball team, Unified Cheerleading team, and swim team.

For the most part my family is a big part of my life. I have six brothers and three sisters plus my mom and dad so that in itself is a lot. Plus I don’t live with them so trying to see them all at the same time is hard for me. One because I have such a busy schedule second because they do as well, all going to school at different times or extracurricular activities they have to do, everyone is always out and about. Most of the time I’ll try to go on like a Sunday morning or Friday evening when I know most likely everyone will be home. Also now that I don’t work on Thursdays due to my night class I’ll stop by after class to say hi and catch up. Even though sometimes it’s a lot I

The Great Being saith and I quote: “Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom”.

I would like to let you know that a Parent Summit will be held on 05/13. It is A conference for members of Bilingual Parent Advisory Councils and parents of English Learners (ELs). It is an opportunity for all of us meeting other committees and gain more experiences. We have six seats for our bilingual parents. Personally I love to meet new people so I will fill up application. I encourage you to join us. Please refer to the below link . If you are planning to join us then fill up the form, and email it to us please. The registration deadline is 04/27/2017.

Having these conversations I clearly understand why our marriage did not work. You love calling me a lunatic, but we and everyone that is associated with you know who is and always have been unstable.

Congratulations on graduating from Cathedral High School! You have been put in so much effort, determination, and hard work into school these past four years. You are graduating with an excellent GPA while at the same time participating in many activities, church, and working your job at Target. Your demonstration of priorities has been very impressive to me and you certainly have found a good balance!

That’s good. I know about the P.T. because when I was in Postal school they made us do P.T. with the AIT students, talk about getting smoked with the young kids. That’s good to hear that you have the highest average in your class, when I reclassed to 42A I made the list for Honor Grad right before the Unit deployed back in 2014. I wish you the best of luck on making Distinguish Honor Grad. I’ll keep you post on anything that’s going

Before my senior year in high school I dreaded the thought of writing a paper, writing came as an immense struggle for me. I never had any confidence in what I wrote; I couldn’t help feeling that my writing was very subpar when compared to that of my classmates. It always seemed that the reason for my passing grades on papers was due to my teachers trying to rush through grading, rather than my ability as a writer. I felt like this was a reoccurring theme ever since I had entered middle school, because of this I felt my confidence as a writer slip from me slowly but surely. This continued until I met Mrs. Blevens, the instructor for my senior year writing class. I felt like she was the first teacher that I had that cared about her students writing. No person comes close to what she did for me my writing like she does. Mrs. Blevens knew how to push her students out of their comfort zone, probably the most important thing you can do for a young writer. In order to grow as a writer you need to be pushed at times in order to gain, even if it makes you uncomfortable and that’s exactly what Mrs. Blevens did for me.

In January, my sister and her daughter came from Connecticut to help celebrate my sixtieth birthday. It was more than wonderful to have them in our home. Ellen had not been to visit since our mother died, almost four years ago and I was elated to have her and Meghan in our surroundings. Vince made dinner reservations at the Van’s Restaurant; one of my favorite restaurants nearby. Larry and Marla, Stan and Carole and Vince’s mother joined in the celebration. After dinner, Vince invited everyone to our home for coffee and a piece of the extra special birthday cake he baked for me. It was a perfect evening and I certainly felt loved and extremely blessed.

Mid summer of 2012 I met my best friend, hes some kind of wonderful. His smile can light up any moment, his eyes are like a piercing radiance surrounded by long, deep, dark brown lashes. So tall and muscular, always ready to stand his grounds or stand up for a loved one; meanwhile, a big teddy bear behind closed doors. He is unexplainable in a way, I could go on for days and he still wouldn’t be clear enough. I moved in with this man within just a few days of being introduced to him. During the big summer storm when everyone’s power was out for at least two weeks, I had no clean clothes, no way to wash my clothes, no way to shower other than to wash off the best I could, no alarm clock for work, and the list could go on. Neal Bonecutter was introduced to me by the bartender Kristie (mutual friend) at Mizway. I already know everyone has heard””

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.

Growing up, family meals were a daily occurrence, bringing together my sisters and parents together to talk about how well or how poorly our day went. We cherished the meals put in front of us, salivating at my mother’s perfectly seasoned chicken or her incredibly spaghetti and meatballs with a freshly picked tomato puree. These simplistic yet delicious meals were almost like magic to me at such a young age in my childhood. I never understood or even valued the specificity and effort it takes to make such a well prepared meal until I grew older and entered middle school. I watched my mom prepare meals in the kitchen, putting an exact one-fourth cop of sugar in the meal, perfectly contrasting the savory, tangy flavors with the sweet crystallization of simple sugar. Too much sugar, and the meal will be washed in sweetness, and too little sugar, and the flavors won’t be perfectly contrasting. Finding the perfect equilibrium is what created these scrumptious meals in which I valued so much. This art was almost a type of mathematics to me, a perfect set of variables to find the perfect solution. Using this reasoning, after studying culinary arts for an extended period of time, I consider it more of a form of mathematics, rather than a for of artistic expression.