PRINT ADS

So here we are: graduation. For the past few weeks, I have been asking some of my classmates if there is anything that they want me to mention in this speech. I was a little disappointed that nobody took me up on the offer seriously, but I guess that just means I'm going to have to include what I want to talk about.

I think graduation can be a time for us to remember the important things in life - those cultural influences, values and memories that have molded us into the successful, ambitious young adults that we are today. I know there have been a few things that have had a significant effect on me personally, and I think we can all relate to them. By looking back through the days of our pasts that are almost-forgotten, we gain a better understanding of who we are, and that allows us to see where we are going. As a generation and a class, we have some experiences that link us to each other.

For example, we all have role models. Where would we be in life without role models? As teenagers now, it can be hard for us to view ourselves as leaders for younger generations. But I think a lot of us looked up to a specific group of teenagers when we were younger. These teenagers represented the importance of fighting for what is right, the advantages of teamwork, and the ability to accomplish things that at first seem impossible. You know who I'm talking about - the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

That's right. On a personal side note, I actually had a sweater - no, not a sweatshirt - a sweater with the Ninja Turtles knitted into it. Some of my most cherished childhood memories come from being able to wear that sweater to church every weekend. And I think I did wear it every weekend. Thanks mom and dad for letting me be so cool. Every kid deserves to have TV characters knitted into a sweater.

So our generation has had good role models. That's a given. But we also knew how to have fun. I mean, back in the day, we had the best games. Remember pogs? You know, those little cardboard circles about the size of a half-dollar. Then you would throw a slammer at a pile of the pogs and see how many you could flip over. I know it was complicated, but if that's not fun, I donít know what is.

And remember in elementary school those big picture books that teachers would read aloud? I'm talking the BIG books. Like the two feet by three feet books with enormous pictures and about four words per page. Back then, the rule was the bigger the book, the better. That rule may have been changed a little bit by the time we entered high school. I guess now the rule is the bigger the book, the more it stays in your locker, but that's beside the point.

The point is that we as an entire class have a lot of memories. We have a lot of experiences. We were there when Beanie Babies were still worth hundreds of dollars and people would cry if the tags got ripped and they became worthless. We were in school when Oregon Trail was the coolest computer game ever and Windows 3.1 was high-tech. We managed to survive the PokÈmon craze, the yo-yo craze and the time period when the only acceptable hairstyle for guys was to have it spiked straight up in front with so much gel that it was rock solid. I think that was when middle school boys single-handedly kept the hair gel companies in business.

It seems silly to look back at these things now. The old TV shows seem childish, the games sound boring, and we can't believe people would waste so much money on Beanie Babies. We see pictures from when we were younger, and we think, "Oh my gosh. What was I wearing?" "Why are my ears so big?" "Did everyone have braces?"

We watch home videos of ourselves playing sports, and we see how clumsy we actually were. But these dorky memories are some of the things that bind us together as a group. We have grown up throughout the years, and a big part of that growing up has been creating our own identities. We have drifted apart from some of the friends we had when we were younger and have grown closer to others. We have made fools of ourselves, and we have learned from our mistakes.

We are no longer those gawky, bumbling 12-year-olds from our old yearbook pictures, but the experiences that we had when we were in elementary school, middle school, and all of the experiences that we have had in high school to this day contribute to the personality we have created for ourselves. Today we are presenting that complete person to our community, our teachers, our families, and our friends. Don't be embarrassed of your past because it got you to where you are today, and if you are proud of who you are today, then the past is nothing to be ashamed of.

We've had some big steps along the way. We learned how to ride a bike, we learned how to read, we learned how to drive, we learned how to do laundry. Well, maybe some people still need to review the laundry thing before they head off on their own. But the fact remains - we have dealt with big steps in the past, and we are going to deal with even bigger steps in the future.

Graduation is just another one of those steps that leads us forward. Right now we have come to a pivotal point in our lives where we are standing on the brink of a cliff, and we can look back at everything we have done, we can see exactly how far we have come, and we know exactly what it has taken to get here. The memories that are stored inside of us will never go away. We can take comfort in the fact that we will always have them.

But right in front of us is this huge drop-off. What is beyond the ledge where we are standing is completely unknown. When we step into that unknown - when we graduate from high school - there is no turning back. There is no "right" emotion that goes along with a time like this. Is it fear? Is it excitement? Is it relief? I don't know. Each person can deal with graduation differently, and every response is OK.

What's a good graduation speech if you don't include a quote, right? Well I'm going to go with one from my dad. He claims he made it up, and I think it is relevant for the occasion. If you think back on your high school career, there were days when you didn't want to wake up in the morning, days when you studied for a test and still bombed it, days when you wanted to win a game so badly but ended up losing - days when everything was just wrong. Those were days when life just wasn't fair.

Well here's what my dad says: "The fair is where you get cotton candy." And he's right. There is no such thing as fair in something at chaotic as daily living. Life is not going to be fair if fair means that everything will always go our way. We just have to have faith and confidence in the fact that we have been prepared by others and, more importantly, we have prepared ourselves to take that leap into the unknown of tomorrow and deal with challenges and adversity head-on. For every low point in our lives, we have to realize that there will always be plenty of good times to go around.

We can all find someone in our lives who has led us to this point. We need to remember to thank our teachers, our friends, our parents, and everyone else who helped us through the times when we didn't think we would make it to today. Those people deserve our utmost appreciation and respect. But we are not in the passenger seat of our own lives anymore. It is up to each and every one of us to take the wheel and go where we want to go in life - do what we want to do. That's a pretty amazing thing.

Remember this: the strongest people aren't the ones who never make mistakes. The strongest people are the ones who have made mistakes but have overcome them and have realized what they truly value in life. Graduation is a symbol of the clean slate we are getting when we enter the real world. From this point forward, what we do to prove ourselves and how we act toward others will be the new definition of our reputations. Make those reputations good ones.

Class of 2006, we are ready start the next chapter of our lives. Congratulations!