Be The One You Envisioned

To all my fellow classmates, teachers, and to those who somehow survived having to wake us up on time for four years. 

When we all first entered the doors of Oak Hill High School, most of us had the lingering thought that graduation was a decade away, I know I did. At that time four years seemed like forever. And yet here we all are nearing a new chapter of our lives. The contradiction is the strange irony of growing up.

To me summarizing high school is highly difficult to me because I was and to this day still am the type of person that just gets it done. I would phase everything else out including my teachers and just do my work to get it over with. But it is also hard to summarize because it is composed of many different things like doubt, losses, wins, and sometimes confidence. It went from seeming like graduation was forever away to where we all are now, knocking on the door of graduation and ready to embark upon a new chapter in our lives. I remember the days where just one single assignment felt like it was the end. For me I can honestly say I am the quiet type and keep to myself minimizing any interaction as possible. But even for someone like me who doesn’t really interact and make friends there are still memories that we all have which we didn’t realize mattered as much as it does before.

If I had to describe our experience, I would say High School is like being stranded in the middle of the forest slowly making and remembering your own path that leads back home. That is a metaphor of course, but I find it to be highly fitting to the point I am trying to get across. Every last hardship we have all experienced has taught us an important lesson, not always the lessons that are on paper or on the whiteboard but the ones about resilience, patience, persistence, and who we are even when things don’t go as we had planned. 

And things definitely did not always go to plan, actually things went further and further from the plan more than often. 

There were moments I can guarantee that we all felt hopeless, tired, and lost, the moments where our future felt like something in question rather than a guarantee. We all have spent many years asking ourselves questions like, Who am I really? What am I going to do after school? Can I do this? and most significantly Can I make it through High School?.

I think that one of the most important lessons life will teach you is that absolutely nobody has it all figured out no matter how much you think you do. Even those who are the smartest in the class and in life as a whole are constantly learning new things just like everyone else. Going into adulthood do not think that all of the sudden you will magically have all the answers because don’t get it mistaken you wont. Adulthood is a spiral that goes up and down but as it does we are constantly evolving and learning from both the downs and ups. 

I think that graduation is such an important moment because it is the exact moment in time when we all begin our new chapter in life and close an old one. But it is also the moment we all finally realize that we are the ones that write out our future, our lives, what we do, and how we do in life. 

When I think about school I think of the small moments most people are too blind to see. I think about the tired students continuing to persist in getting stuff done, I think of the courtage that is shown by every one of us when we do an oral presentation, and I also think of the relief everyone has felt when we see that passing grade in powerschool. 

It is these moments that make vivid imagery in our heads because they mattered. They were regular moments that suddenly became more than normal, extraordinary for the simple fact that we have all experienced it together.

Even though every last one of us here is beginning our own journey’s, there is something soothing about that. Some of us are heading off to college, some of us are going to be embarking on work, and some of us are still trying to figure everything out, with that there is a strong juxtaposition in this room today; we are all different in our own ways, but yet we have all arrived at the same finish line together.

That matters.

Because of today’s society trying to convince people that success is only individual— that life is a constant competition where the people at “advantage” succeed. But high school has taught us all something entirely different. We have had our successes because people supported us, families sacrificed for us, friends gave us and themselves encouragement, and the unrelenting belief that our teachers had in us within these tough four years even when we didn’t believe in ourselves. 

Not one of us is at the point in life that we are alone.

So as we progress, my hope is that we remember past just grades and assignments. I hope we remember just how important kindness is. I hope people remember that there is always someone fighting battles that we cannot see. I hope that we all remember the power that lies within our decisions. And most of all I hope that having failure is not the polar opposite of success but instead it is a step towards greater success. 

One day from now, possibly years from now, we will most likely forget our test scores and assignment grades. But we will all remember how this chapter of our life has felt and just how much it has made who we are today. We will remember the people who caused us to change. We will remember the times that made us happy even when facing hardships. 

We will remember this all.

That continuous repetition is called anaphora, but most importantly it is true.

So tonight as we all think and celebrate the chapter we are all leaving behind us and all that is to come in the future, I want to leave you with this; Do not let fear convince you to live a smaller life than the one you have already imagined and hoped for yourself not only that but also the one we all know you are capable of. Take the chances. Be kind even when it’s hard. Be brave. Wherever life takes you next, never forget the individuals that are sitting beside you tonight, the ones who have been with you since the beginning, the people who grew up with you. 

Class of 2026 we made it, not perfectly and definitely not easily, but together. Thank you and congratulations.

“Pomp and Circumstance” by Herkie is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

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