Graduation Speech : My Ideal Class

I started writing my first real essay in the Eighth grade, and I never knew why I was given such an awful task. I am a terrible English/Writing scholar and I never could comprehend the concept of writing. I put a lot of work and heart into my first essay, but that still didn’t get me the grade that I wanted. Needless to say I got a “D” on the essay. I was extremely disappointed in the grade I made and I wanted to reject writing all together, but that is not the kind of scholar I am, so I began my journey during my Eighth grade year to become a better writer. I had many academic goals that year, but my main goal was to excel on the English state writing test at the end of the year. The test would determine if I moved on to ninth grade English or if I would get placed in a pre-high school English program. To achieve my goals I knew that I was going to have to work hard not only on developing the papers I write, but also making sure they are grammatically correct, interesting, and that each story or essay gets the main point across as well.

Senior year was amazing. I could go on and on with all kinds of new adventures, friends, and experiences I made, but let 's just take you back to the start of things. It was a new year, a fresh start back to school. We were in our final year. At first I didn’t know how to feel, I just felt was happy to be back at school because that meant seeing all of my friends I hadn’t seen over the summer. The year started off good. I loved all my new classes, football season was coming up, and I met the most wonderful girl in my life. Other than going to high school games I wasn’t much of a going out type of person, but I knew this would be my last year ever to enjoy everything high school had to offer. So I just tried to make the most of it. I went to almost every school home sporting event, I started going out more and enjoying the people around me, and did things I usually wouldn’t have done. I just made every second count like it was my last. Overall the school year was pretty great. We never really were a school known for winning in sports, but other than those bumps and curves I really loved it. I would definitely do it again if I could.

1. I would like to enroll in the Senior Honors Program, because I think it will be an excellent way to complete my experience as a sociology undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. Since transferring to UC Berkeley in the Fall of 2015, many of the courses I have taken have focused on research and its importance to the field of sociology. The continued exposure to the diverse topics of sociological research, as well as the varied methods researchers use to collect their data, has shown me that many of questions I ask about the social world on a daily basis are potential sociological research projects. I find this fact to be inspiring as opposed to overwhelming, and I believe that the questions that I continually ask warrant further academic exploration. I want to participate in this program, because it will place me in an environment where I will be able to find academic answers to the questions that cross my mind regularly, and ultimately mold me into a more insightful and capable student.

Many people have different high school experiences or stories about when they finally felt like a highschooler or felt like they belonged. Some people might not even have had that experience yet and are still trying to belong at Wahlert Catholic High School. Personally, I have had many experiences when I finally felt like a high schooler. Such as my first year playing on the Wahlert Freshman Baseball team, talking to upperclassmen, my first year playing on the Wahlert Freshman Basketball team, or all of the times cheering in the Wahlert Volleyball, Football, and Basketball Eagle’s Nest. But, one experience truly stands out in particular, the school-wide pep rally for homecoming week.

Over the last few years of high school I feel like I changed in a positive way because in the beginning of my freshmen year of high school, I didn’t really think of how much my grades would affect my chances of graduating and going to college. I didn’t think I would make it this far and it didn’t matter to me because dropping out and getting a GED seemed like an easy way out for me at the time. But I realized that life could be hard out there when all you’ll have is GED that gets you little job opportunities when you could just finish school, work on getting your diploma and maybe go to college to study for what you’d want to do for a career that can get you tons of job opportunities because of the experience you have.

While a necessary step in any dedicated academic’s life, the graduation of high school is not always a cakewalk to accomplish. With the obstacle of mental illness in my way, I found the task of graduating high school and moving on to college to be a mammoth that I felt not healthy enough to conquer. In the second half of my high school career, I found myself in physical and mental states so poor that I missed approximately one third of my desk hours in my junior year. The possibility of returning to school, let alone graduating with my class, seemed bleak.

I came into this high school believing I knew who I was, but little did I know there was a lot to discover about myself and over these 4 years I blossomed. My freshmen year was a plane white wall as I was beginning my journey in high school. My older sister who was a senior at the time and a friend from middle school helped me explore the school my first days. I began adapting to my schedule and the environment within classrooms getting along with my classmates and teachers. As days passed I began feeling comfortable not only in my academics, but socially as well. I grew distant from others, I grew closer to others, but throughout the process I began realizing that people will come and go and I needed to focus on my interests. I began joining clubs my sophomore year such as an art club and lacrosse. I felt welcomed and challenged at the same time because I had to balance academics and clubs. I learned time management and responsibility and several other important characteristics from my experiences motivating me to become more involved. My junior year was an eye opener as I realized the previous years were just a smooth ride through high school and now I have to face the challenges. It was my first year taking AP courses and I took U.S History and Calculus. History was no problem even though it’s my least favorite subject, it was an easy to understand course and I felt comfortable in the classroom. In the other hand, Calculus was the slap in the face of reality, a course

I would like to commence this speech by saying that we have all been truly blessed in being given the opportunity to celebrate our graduation with each other in such a manner. Being able to spend our final moments as a class in such an important place is wonderful, and before I delve further into this speech, I want to thank the man who allowed us to graduate from the church, Father Jenik. He’s a great preacher, a charitable bishop, and most importantly, he is a great man.

Thank you, we are truly honoured to have been selected as class valedictorians to represent the voice of the 2017 graduating class. My name is Taha, and this is Sophia.L. I still can’t believe some of us have been here for 6 years and that we’re graduating. It’s all happening so fast.

“I always thought I would sink so I never swam”, but Peirce showed me that I wouldn't sink. My eight years at Peirce is something I will never forget. Something that I’ll think about if I’m ever down. Something that makes me realize that I can do it, and I will, because my success is up to me, and only me. Over the years I have learned such an immense amount that it’s hard to even begin. My time here left me with so much more experience and skill that if you were to tell me eight years ago how amazing and supportive everyone is to help you succeed, I wouldn’t believe you. Everyone staff member, every student, everyone wants you to do your best. We are a community of supporters, and that's the best kind of community. Together everyone has grown and grown and there is still much more to come, but I’m sure everyone one of us graduating class of 2017 will be ready for it.

College students have two choices when it comes to spring break, either go home or to go on a wild vacation with their friends. I recently had to make a similar choice between going to Destin, Florida, which includes partying with my friends or going home to Chicago, Illinois to rest. In order to make a decision it was best to compare and contrast my two choices.

College, whether community, private, public, or vocational, encourages a creativity and belief within students, offering the explanation that their futures increase ten-fold just by having a degree. It proves the ability to learn and connect concepts and to think critically and efficiently, skills highly useful in their careers and endeavors. It instills within students, the truth about the world around them and how interactions with staff and peers will guide them for their future encounters. College means opening doors which would normally be inaccessible for a high school graduate because the learning goes beyond the classroom and allows them to connect their studies with real life application. Students are encouraged to apply their passions and studies to gain skills such as independence, networking, critical thinking, and socialization.

Life event experiences directly cause changes in the students’ lifestyles, and consequently, college students’ consumption needs may change (Lee, M., & Mathur., 2001). Graduation is the first momentous event that ever happened to college students. Every enrolled college students will face the role transitions process, which is from a student to an employee, during the graduation period. In other words, job hunting and starting a new career serve as part of the students’ life events. Due to this reason, college students’ shopping adaptations may change due to the experience of graduation and other related life events.

Ahhhhh finally “College Life” has arrived. No more stress, less work, later classes, time to just sit back and relax. “Going to school will be easy” as some say. Well those that think that are setting themselves up for failure. “1 in 3 first-year students won’t make it back for sophomore year” and one of the mains is because of “academic struggles” (U.S. News). The ‘College Life” is not all that it is cut out to be. With new surroundings, unfamiliar faces, and new professors some first-time students tend to struggle getting through the first semester. Mrs. Amy Fox’s is one of the hardest classes Elizabethtown Community & Technical College has to over. This is an English 101 class that is mandatory for all students towards a degree. Though she is not the only professor teaching English 101, many students take her class and some say it can be pretty challenging. Mrs. Fox’s class is hard because students must adjust to two teachers, the amount of work given, and the hybrid Fridays.

English class seemed to be the most dreadful to take within school. Writing essays for most of my grade in a class is not what I was looking forward too. When I entered college I knew that it would be one of many challenging classes I would have to take. Starting from the lowest English class to moving on up, the writing assignments became longer and more thought out. The time came when I got into this class that I knew more work was going to have to be put into essays and thus brought out what I had not seen before in my work progress.