Graduation Speech Essay

When I was younger, I would often return home to a familiar question: So, what did you learn today? My answer would always be "nothing" or "stuff." As I look back, I never lied, yet, I never told the whole truth. Many people think that you don't know anything with only 18 years of experience; I think they're wrong. I've learned a lot about myself and others from the relationships I have built throughout the years. I believe my most important lessons were "people" lessons. Those are the ones which could never be taught out of a book or in a lecture; you have to go out and experience them for yourself.

WOW! So much has happened since June. The SV FFA and ag department had a rough start to our year losing three of our students who were on the FFA officer team to other schools. Even with this bump in the road, the four officers that remained visited Mt. Shasta City and had a blast bonding and learning more about each other at their officer retreat in August. Once school started we found three new officers and attended COLC (Chapter Officer Leadership Conference) where the entire team learned about their diverse leadership styles and were able to bond together as the official Surprise Valley FFA Chapter Officer Team for the 2017-2018 school year. If you see them around, congratulate President Cindy Hinze, V.P. Maddison Seely, Secretary Maya

Students, faculty, family, friends, on this exciting day, I speak to optimism, laughter, and grins.

Well, this is it, the day all of us have been waiting for has finally arrived. It seems like only yesterday we were picking our noses and flicking them at innocent bystanders or yelling childish phrases like, "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" or, wait, that was yesterday. Never mind. Anyways.

Well, this is it. These are the only seniors who were able to survive the culminating exhibition. If I had known that there would be this many open seats, I would have invited my third cousins from Norway. You know, it's funny. As I look around at the familiar faces in the student section, I am reminded about something. Our class, particularly the girls, have been very fashion-conscious over the last four years. Some even seem to be in competition with one another. Well girls, here we are on the most important day of your high school careers, and you're all wearing the same thing. The guys, on the other hand, could care less. I know for a fact that a couple of you aren't wearing anything underneath your tailored tarps.

“Drum majors, Jeremiah Wooten and Scott Smith, is your Corps ready?”, booms the announcer’s thunderous voice as our show starts. Our head drum major, Jeremiah, turns to the crowd and performs his salute initiating the true beginning of our show. I’m standing on the forty yard line of Ames Field in Michigan City, Indiana when I truly feel that I am performing my show in championship competition. Many veteran members told us rookies that the this competition will likely never be my best performance, and I intend on proving them wrong. Our show progresses, and I focus on being the best I can be every second this the show. An instant passes and we are now eight minutes into our eleven and a half minute show, and my body begins to develop

The old poet Kahlil Gibran, a long time ago, once said, "You work that you may keep pace with the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission toward the infinite." An interesting thought, that we work in order to keep pace with the earth. Now, I'm sure you're asking yourself, how can my near minimum wage job, where the customers treat me like a doormat and I still have to be pleasant and chipper, keep me in sync with the soul of the earth. Well I imagine there are higher rewards to part-time high school jobs, but other than the always too small pay checks, I am hard pressed to fathom them. Yet, that is not the kind of work I

Well Class of 2012, we did it! We are graduating. All the hard work we have done to graduate has paid off. All the final exams, the many steps we've taken up and down Gadd High's halls, to the gym for practice, up to the cafeteria to connect with friends, down to the library, up to the playing fields -- they're all over. After today, our lives will be changed forever. Before that happens, let's take a look at the last four years of memories and even go back to those memories from our elementary and middle school years and collect them into a book; our own book, our book of life. If, some day, people could read our individual book, what would they learn from them?

Henry Adams once wrote "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." This is so true, every teacher here has taught us much more than the textbook curriculum. Every teacher here tonight has given us students something we will use or remember for the rest of our lives. I really don't think people understand or appreciate the time and effort our teachers have put into us. So tonight I'm not going to give everyone advice on the future, I'm not going to tell you how life is a journey we've just begun, and I'm not going to brag about how great the class of 2006 is. Since we have eight outstanding Valedictorians this year, I'm sure all of those bases are already covered. So instead, I'm going to take a few minutes

I agonized over writing this speech for a long time, because I felt like nothing I could say would make a difference, first because I don't know if what I could say would be good advice, and second because I don't know if advice about things like being true to yourself and setting goals and all that is actually helpful. How can I give advice that I can't even follow in my own life? And even if you are mesmerized for my two minutes, you would walk out of here and your life wouldn't be any different. Or maybe you'd be inspired for a day, and then forget. But still, the speech had to be written.

I want to thank my family for giving me the opportunity to receive a private education and for encouraging me to always do my best. Thank you to my friends and their parents who have loved me and believed in me. Most of all, I want to say thanks to God for giving me the gifts He has and for loving me unconditionally; for without Him, I am nothing.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the 2012 graduating class of County High School, I would like to welcome you to our commencement ceremony. As valedictorian of this class I would like to speak to you, and my fellow graduates about responsibility, but first I would like to tell you a little story

After four years, we are finally gathered on the steps of what we thought we'd never come to. We are graduating, finally shedding the familiar and embarking on a world of "what's-next?"

We, of Cedar Community College, are many nations. We are men and women, husbands and wives, parents. We are young and not-so-young. Behind the face of every graduate, and just as distinct, is a different story, a different reason, and a different use for the education for which we have assembled this evening to recognize. We serve to enrich the campus community, as we are not just a cross-section of this nation, but of the world. Displayed in the Brier Hall cafeteria are 50 national flags to signify our cultural heritage here at Cedar. Yet regardless of our diverse origins, we come here bound by a

We live in a time in which everything is categorized by lists, whether it’s a dreaded school rubric or a David Letterman Top Ten List. As the millennium turns, we are deluged with lists: the best books of the millennium, the greatest songs of the millennium, the most influential people of the millennium. Personally, I may be sick of all these lists, but no graduating class of 2006 could let this occasion slip by without one more list: The Top Ten Things I Learned in High School. So listen along and see if your experience parallels mine. Here goes: