Resilience always prevails

Hello class of 2025, the end is near and we are living through our last days of the beginning of our lives. Although our lives are not over after high school, we are about to start our lives in the real world. As we end Id like to recap our wild 4 years. As freshmen, we walked in nervous and confused by the seniors who towered over us, and you saw them as amazing because they were almost done and we still had 4 years left. Freshman year was the easiest year of them all, but our naive minds thought it was the hardest yet to come. But we were mistaken, sophomore year comes around, and we all show up thinking we had it all figured out and we would start out this year strong. But like many of us, geometry was a thing, English two kicked off strong, and all our other classes sprang into learning at 100 miles an hour. Within the first 2 months we were swamped with work and I was wishing I had taken at least one study hall. But like every other year, we figured it out, we stayed up late, regretting every minute of work you didn’t do in class, just hoping to go to bed and forcing yourself to keep your eyes open. We left that year with one thing on our minds for the summer, our licenses, the freedom you dreamed of and hoped for since you were told you had to be 16 to get your license. As the summer passed, some got theirs and others waited for their test date back, while others waited to turn 16. I got my license on August 1 of 2023 around the same time as many of my peers. Along with the freedom and feeling that you were an adult, it gave us the feeling we were almost there. As I pulled into the parking lot for the first time on my own my junior year I felt like I had it all. And yet again we struggled the hardest year academically was yet to come. Junior year swamped most of us with work and left us hoping for the end. This year was a big year for all of us as students and humans. We grew more than any other year and started to have a better understanding of life and where we saw ourselves in the future. As we all passed in work in our last few days of our year, we felt the biggest sense of accomplishment since we were walking into our senior year. The last day of our last summer was a somber one for sure, we sat wondering where our future lies and feeling we were ready for our last year. This year was the hardest year mentally. We all faced a huge case of senioritis and felt the work was meaningless and we then faced a blockage from all effort we used to put into work. As due dates rolled by and we struggled to turn in the assignments we had to the workload piled up and we yet again were stuck in a hole we had dug ourselves. Senior year was the fastest year we have ever had, months flew by like days, and those 2 weeks that we get out earlier than the rest seemed so sweet yet so sorrow. As this year closes and I give this speech on the last day possible at the last moments of my high school career, I find what all these years have taught me, resilience.

 Graduation day is flying towards us, and we are turning in our final assignments with a sense of accomplishment and sorrow that these chapters are closing. As the class of 2025 walks through the doors of high school for the final time, I see the most resilient group of students there can be, and I learned that through pain and perseverance, resilience will always prevail. Thank you and goodbye to the class of 2025.

“Graduation Cap” by spurekar is licensed under CC BY 2.0.