Graduation Speech - Original Writing

Nine years ago, I never could have imagined I’d be writing this essay. I was a senior in high school, and, like the rest of my classmates, I was apprehensive about the future. Unlike my classmates, I felt like I had missed the proverbial “you need to get your life together” message. I watched my classmates apply to colleges, their majors already decided and their future careers mapped out. While I was an above average student, I felt I lacked the decisiveness my classmates seemed to have. I did not feel passionate about a career or even a field of study. I felt defective. This was compounded by the financial strain I knew attending college would have on my family. It seemed wasteful to try to “find my passion” at school while squandering

I walked over to where me, and Frank sat he was picking at some tape on the desk impatiently. "Hey." I sat down, he smiled, "Hey Gee!" Frank smiled, "Can 't wait for music!" He said excitedly, I chuckled. His favorite class was music, which we had after gym. I only have three classes with Frank, but I have all my classes with Ray. He can be a bitch, but he 's a bitch who 's my best friend.

Every time I go out on a stage I look at the small piece of paper in my music folder, one with hand written words that now hold so much meaning to me. I think all the way back to the first time I sang in front of an audience and of the complete and utter disaster that it was. However, I also think of how far I have come. It all started in fourth grade when my school had their annual school talent show. I had sang in the church choir with a group of around twenty other kids, but this was different. I had practiced my song multiple times over, and had asked my friend to play the piano while I sang. The day I walked into the school will never leave my memory. It was so tense you could taste the anticipation in the air. I walked in and sat in my seat where I memorized the student I would come up after. Time seemed to speed up impossibly fast, and the next moment I was being called onto the stage. The only sound I could hear was the pound of my heart, and my friend fuzzily asking in the background, “Do you want to go a cappella when I turn the pages?” I nodded agreeably because I did not want her to know I did not know what the word meant. Now I know it’s meaning is “without instrumental music” ("A Cappella."). Too soon, we were standing on the stage, and I had started to sing the song. I thought everything was going well until it came time for her to turn the page and she stopped playing. I waited patiently as she waited for me to sing. We were both waiting, and the only sound

As I grew up I constantly spelled out my brother’s name backwards, instead of CHRIS I spelled it SIRHC or I would say things such as, “noodles spaghetti”. I assumed it was standard for kids my age. A few years later, during my first few years in school, my teacher explained to my mom that there was a high possibility that I was dyslexic. Due to this, that same teacher moved me into a slower class; a class intended for intellectually disabled students. Although the students in the classroom were lovely, I was furious that I was branded as “incompetent” or “sluggish”. After a few hours of analyzing this unexpected change, I panicked and decided that I needed to construct a plan that would get me back into the “regular” classroom. As soon as I got home that day I sat at the dinner table and read book after book. I read everything from my school books to cereal labels; I was determined to be placed back into the “regular” classroom. It took a few months, but after studying hours and hours with my helpful and optimistic mother I was placed back into the “regular class”.

The morning was as clear as glass. The sun shined through my window, waking me up from my sleep. The air tasted like water, as if I was tasting the Earth. I sat up to put on my slippers and walked to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and dressed to get ready for summer school today. I recently started, so I don’t especially know my way around. At the same time, I never wanted to go to summer school, but my teacher said it is mandatory to go, or I will get held back from grade level. Now that I finished getting ready, I walked out from the bathroom to the kitchen.

Today is just another normal day in seventh grade. I get to my Christian school, open my locker, and find all my stuff has been removed. There is a bright green post-it note that says “Get a life, loser...And if you want your stuff back, have a fun time looking for it,” I turn around when I hear snickering that sounds all too familiar.

respected that because he valued my education. I was expected to graduate in May of 2014 and we planned to get married in March of 2014 right before my graduation. Things were going well until late February I stopped hearing from him for 10 days. I was worried, he hadn’t deployed or anything, but what if he got hurt. He ended up calling me two weeks before our wedding date to say that he was not the man I should marry and that he needed time to get to get himself together. I agreed respectfully and said that we could wait. The following weekend, I was informed that he married a women he had met 5 months prior. I was put in a state of depression and tried to commit suicide. I stopped attending class during midterms which is when I found out and my life turned upside down. A few days later, I realized graduation was less than two months away and that I had to pull myself together. I did and I graduated that May with a 3.2 GPA. When I think of this experience, I think about my ego. Freud would say that my ego wants to meet my needs in a way that is sensible and takes all aspects of the situation into account before taking action. When the peak of this situation arrived, my ego needed to meet my needs of being hurt. I took everything into account, so what I did was focus heavily on my studies so that my brain was the focus and not my heart. My ego told me that my degree was more important than a heartbreak at the time so I managed to redo all my midterms and even pass my

BEEEEPP… BRRR… BEEP…BRRRRRR! My room flashed in front of me, quickly then disappeared. The morning sun peeked through my translucent curtains. Shadows of dancing branches appeared on my white walls. I woke up panicked at the sound of an alarm I had forgotten to turn off the previous night. How stupid could I be, forgetting to turn off an alarm clock attached to my own chest! Saturday morning and awake at 6 A.M, really?! I forced my eyes shut, but no use. After several attempts to get both feet on the ground, I began my day doing things I don’t usually do (12 P.M is my usual routine). Hmmmm? Six hours ahead of my weekend routine, what to do? After a quick breakfast of my usual free range sunny side up eggs, I got out for an early morning jog, quite a rarity to see me out on the streets at this time. I put on my shoes, and enjoyed the rest of my morning with music.

“Bye mom I have to go to school and I’ll be back for a little while, but I won’t be back tonight because I have a party.” That’s what I said when I was excited for this party. But how do you think I feel now? Dead. I am dead. It also wasn 't no accident. I do remember my killer, but I do know that she was at the party that night. Maybe you can guess and figure out why.

I was walking to school, like usually because I missed the bus again. My house was only four blocks away and it was a rainy day and a cold one too. When I finally made it to school everyone was already going to their classes .

My mom has kept everything in the house the way it was before. It has the same furniture and the same pictures on the wall. It’s minimal with a nice brown couch and a wooden coffee table across the fireplace. He had some pictures he bought years ago organized neatly in their own individual spaces. Everything is here except the empty coffee mugs, randomly opened books, his ashtray, and the classic music he loved to fill his home with.

Princeton was my Paris not Nolan. My parents talked to each other and asked me more questions about Nolan. They couldn 't believe that I finally had a boyfriend. "Boyfriend" and "Nolan" in the same sentence made me lose my appetite. Mom and dad told me they wanted to meet him soon.

When I was younger, I wasn’t sure which career I wanted to pursue after leaving school, but I was certain that it needed to be something that was hands on as my favourite subjects had always been the ones where I could use my hands, such as art, metalwork and woodwork. I remember one project I was particularly proud of was a square coffee table made from walnut that I built in my woodworking class, I was given a brief with the dimensions and left to design and build it myself.

Have you ever moved before? Have you ever had to say “goodbye” to a best friend, and you knew you were never coming back? Well, I have. I have many times, in fact. But, this time was different. Here’s how it all began.

Hurry ‘’wake up’’ my mom said with excited 4:00 of the morning then I said yawning why then she said we are going to St. Louis! So then I was jumped out of bed and screamed and might of have woken up my baby brother. So then my mom was SHHHHHHHHHHH, and I was like…... whoops! Then I asked are my cousin’s awake and she said what do you mean then I said that you said that they were going to come to if we were going so then she called them and said yes I was so happy I yelled again and now my little sister was asking what is wrong and my little brother was crying and I said whoops again! I could not wait for the big trip! We left at 5:30 we drove back and when we were going for 4 hours when we were going there my little sister fell asleep