Levi’s commencement address

The past 4 years of high school have been nothing you can expect or figure for when you take the first step. Everybody is wondering how this will turn out and the differences between us that will make or break your next 4 years. It’s easy to walk in with confidence as it’s everything everybody tells you to do. With your chin up, head high, ready to meet all kinds of people and lay down a good first impression. With all of these things you get told to do and not do, it’s easy to get everything wrong the first time. The biggest part I took away from the first time I stepped into the building and the last was no matter what you do or try to be, you’re gonna always end up how you were supposed to in high school or after.

In my own experience, everything started early and it seemed the only new thing I was heading into was classes. I had started football, I had already met half the team, it just seemed like everything was falling into place and I had barely done anything in school. Between summer basketball and football I was with friends almost every night and then continuing to meet new friends the more and more I go along. By the time freshman year started I had felt confident enough to not be worried and scared like most people act on the first day of high school. This all helped me get through my first year with the only issue being I missed the seniors I had gotten so close to last year. With all the people I met and the memories I was making it was so hard to realize how quickly the time I’m spending with them is now memories. Something I look back at and wish still happened and these people were still around. But I still have next year!

With sports happening constantly, hanging out with friends, drivers ed coming in, starting to work a job. Sophomore year almost hits you like a train. These things that come up fast remind us more and more of us all growing up. From riding the bus to driving yourself to school, from video games after school to putting a uniform on and scooping ice cream, things that keep us so busy it distracts us from the fact we keep growing more and more without realizing how fast it’s going along. From the young teenagers we walked in as too driving ourselves and finally reaching that “older” status in high school. Getting your drivers license is one of the biggest things that will make you step back and realize how fast things are going. From “No way high schools already starting I gotta catch the bus” to “OH my god its 7:15 and my car isn’t even cleared off of snow yet” Like all new school years come to start it always comes to an end as well, and just like last years ending I had a lot of friends who were seniors that i was very close with, it just seemed like a repeating door dealing with the same thing but yet back to the same place. Oh well we still have more years and football starts soon.

The start of each football season will begin in June with summer practices. This basically gets the next year of school and football season going underway in my mind. With how that went it seemed like things wouldnt ever be different. School ends, football starts the next week and we are right back to work. It makes the summer fly by and then all of a sudden it’s right back on a desk again with a new team to worry about every Friday night. And I was never complaining one bit. All of a sudden it went from me being a little freshman player to now starting varsity with a team that has huge expectations. A group of kids who have played together for their whole lives get one last season to see what they can do. I wouldn’t take any of it back for anything. The group of seniors we had and the coaches taught me more than I’ve ever learned in school and brought me to a new level of maturity and real world responsibility. It is so important to take in as much as you can because it really does pay off in all aspects of life, as long as you’re committed.

Towards the end of the junior year we all suffered an unexpected loss that doesn’t seem like it’s possible for it to actually be real. Someone who was always there to make everyone laugh but when we learned he was gone there was a wave of silence throughout the school. It made the end of the year fly by because nobody and I mean nobody wanted to deal with anything else after hearing that news. I personally didn’t even have school on my mind or much on my mind at all after hearing Iggy passed. I was lost and only wanted to spend time with my friends or alone. With all the hardship, not just me but the entire class and everyone affected by it. Going through a loss with someone I talked too everyday was tough and something I had never felt nor gone through before. It taught me many things at the time, but most importantly taught me to stay close with my boys and the people around me. 

By the time senior year began I felt like I was a completely new person. Everything I had learned and been through recently makes it a bittersweet experience to walk through the doors for the Last-First time.

All my friends in the middle of fall sports, the football team is back at it, coaches are always around. It seems like it’s all back to normal and how it’s always been. Yet there’s still the thought of something missing or someone. There is still the idea that someone who should be here is not. It’s hard to figure out what the issue is until the silence that was never there is the loudest thing you hear. How your head will now go in a million different places at one time but still not know what you’re thinking of. The same silence that will stay with you during all of your “Lasts” Last football season, last student section basketball game, last senior night, last assembly, last day of school and more that you realize on the way. All of these ‘lasts’ are the moments where that silence is heard louder than anything and why it brings me back to wondering why all these things happen around us while he is still in the same place. So many things he is missing out on with us. But everyday you will wake up and there is still nothing to change, nothing you can do about it but keep your head up and keep moving. 

As the year unwinds and the emotions start to show with everyone panicking or sad. You can realize how many different places people are in. So many people still have no idea what they’re doing even tomorrow. Some people have their whole 5 year plan, degrees, jobs all planned out. At the end of the day we are still all in the same spot, with the same motive to prove we can all make it on our own. That cannot happen if our heads are hanging low and we feel stuck in the same spot. Because at the end of the day with keeping your head up, moving on and moving forward you will make it through anything no matter the problem.  Thank you!

“Stanford Graduation” by saketvora is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.