Hi, my name is Pat and I would like to start today by thanking the seniors of 2012 for choosing me to speak today. It is truly my honor. You know, it is really strange how quickly time passes, after spending my whole childhood wishing I was an adult, now here we are and it's a little hard to grasp. It feels like just yesterday I was standing here in the same position at eighth grade graduation. Ahh, middle school, such a joyous time for all of us, free of maturity and not a care in the world. The biggest decisions I ever had to make then was deciding which group to stand with at passing time and choosing which shirt from my extensive collection of Stussy and No Feat apparel to wear. We were all naive to the danger that lurked just around the corner. We were unaware that the carefree world we lived in was about to come crashing to the ground in a blazing inferno of real school work and responsibility ... otherwise known as high school. I am only kidding. It's just when you're young it is easy to get caught up in the here and now, and hard to look to the future. I thought high school would never end and now here we are on the brink of having to go out into the world and actually support ourselves!? I now feel like I never really appreciated my time here and never realized what a valuable experience it would be for me. I spent so much time complaining about high school, I never really had anytime left over to just enjoy myself. There are so many experiences from high school we will all carry with us through out our whole lives and will ultimately help determine what kind of person we are. By the time the end of my junior year rolled around I was ready to get away, so I enrolled in the Running Start program. I felt I had outgrown all that school activities had to offer and I wanted to just get on with my life. But as many teachers have clearly demonstrated over the last four years; you never get too old or too mature to have a little fun in high school. It took me this year to realize this. It was around homecoming that I started to feel a little left out.
People say high school is supposed to be the golden years of your life. I don’t know what else in life is to come; however, my philosophy is to live in the moment and make the life you’re living in the present worthwhile into the future, not only for you but for those who surround you. I live my life participating in our community and getting involved in our school. The activities, and the people I’ve formed relationships with, are what have formed me into the person I am today. The person I am today is not perfect, but I have learned from the mistakes I’ve made.
High school is meant to be the time of your life, but for most seniors just like me it can be some of the most emotional and crazy time. The things in my past make me who I am today, and the things I do now are the first footsteps into the future. I’ve learned a lot about myself in these past four years, and I still have so much learning to do. This is my high school story; the good, bad, and the ugly.
8th grade, 8th grade from the opening day to the signing of the yearbooks. This is the year of memories, goodbyes, and regrets. 8th grade and I’m still realizing that there are people in the world that would die to go to a school like this. A school where every body knows everyone’s name, respects everyone, and where violence and fighting are about as common as the Yankees missing the playoffs. When I’m done with my homework and go to bed, as the days of 8th grade wind down, summer will come and go, and I will find myself in one of those giant, scary places called high school.
Over the past four years, we have grown from insecure, immature freshmen to successful, focused and confident young adults. This incredible transformation has been the result of our entire high school experience. Everything from that first homecoming game, to late night cramming, to the last dance at prom. These experiences have pulled us together as a class and we have learned to love and respect our fellow classmates.
My fellow classmen, as we look back on our years here at school we should remember the meaningful words of a fellow class member of mine when she said, "Dude, where's my iPod?" It's hard for me to think of a better way to describe the many layers of adolescence, because deep down aren?t we all "dudes?" Do we not all have our inner "iPods", and are we not constantly searching for them? Now, we're leaving our childhood behind to study the vast sphere we call planet Earth, into the notorious world of high school, where things will be so much different. Of course we will still have our varied studies, Geometry, Biology, maybe even Forensics or an Accelerated English class here and there. We will still struggle with the daily setbacks formed by peers and strict teachers and principals. But so much of our lives will change. The cars in the parking lot will be driven by, well, students. Our male friends will grow a little fuzzy around the face, and of course, our day will most likely begin with a bell that actually works.
Making the transition from middle school to high school is a huge stepping stone in a teenager’s life. High school represents both the ending of a childhood and the beginning of adulthood. It’s a rite of passage and often many teens have the wrong impression when beginning this passage. Most began high school with learning the last thing on their mind. They come in looking for a story like adventure and have a false sense of reality created through fabricated movie plots acted out by fictional characters. In all actuality high school is nothing like you see in movies, television shows, or what you read about in magazines.
Congratulations, County High Class of 2012, our thirteen-year marathon is over. Some of you may know I am a distance runner, part of an immensely successful cross-country and distance track program. We were fourth at the state cross-country championships, and we are the best senior boys team in the state. My involvement in athletics truly linked me with our school and granted me friends whom I will remember for a lifetime. One of the most important aspects of my time in high school was getting involved. Wherever your next journey takes you, don't sit back and watch the action. Take the initiative and you will experience the benefits. Just look around you. These are the people you grew up with, the people you were teammates with and the people you have survived dozens of classes with for the last four years. They are not merely faces in a yearbook. They are your people, your community, your family. They are the greatest benefit of being involved.
Entering my first year into high school my mind was juvenile I was not yet adjusted to the high school atmosphere. At the time I was still worried about the little things in school such as friends and associates. My first priority was never my work; it used to be entertainment over all. Along that came with my priorities came procrastination and that led to me delaying my assignments hoping for a teacher to give me a "second chance". Forthcoming, at the end of the second quarter my ninth grade year I received a rude awakening.
I would like to begin this evening by welcoming all of my classmates, staff, parents and guardians, the school board and superintendent, friends, and relatives to the commencement of the class of 2012.
The main reason I wanted to make a speech was to personally say thank you to some very special people who have contributed to today:
First of all, I'd like to welcome all the parents, relatives and friends, on behalf of the senior class. It has been a long, hard road to graduation and I know your presence here is greatly appreciated. My job as salutatorian is to reminisce on our past here at County High, a past that reads like a script of a soap opera.
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Sitting in the backseat of the car, I used to bombard my family with these questions. On our summer road trips I was so anxious for the destination that I failed to appreciate the journey. However, as time passed and I grew older, I realized that it was the journey that was important and not the destination.
“It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times.” This is a quote I heard long ago before I had started my four year journey here at Northview. Though I had no idea how accurate and meaningful this quote would be to me back then, it always stood out to me as a something short, sweet, and to the point that sums up what high school is; let me explain. Flashback to when I was 14 and just finished junior high school at Arbor Hills. It was a great three years and I actually learned a lot about people and myself, but I was not prepared for high school courses and the faster more demanding pace of the curriculum. I was very excited however, and became very interested in newer topics and different hobbies. It felt great to be moving on from a stage in life and it felt good to accomplish this, just as it feels now to be moving on from high school.
To begin something new, you must sacrifice something old. To enter the real world, you must graduate your childhood.
Having spent twelve years of my school life in just one small red brick building, the years tend to fade into each other. But the year I remember most clearly and significantly is my senior year of high school, where I finally began to appreciate what this institution offered to any student who stopped to look. Before, school had been a chore, many times I simply did not feel motivated toward a subject enough to do the homework well, and seeing the same familiar faces around ever since I was 5 years old grew very tiring soon enough. But I began to see things from a different angle once I became a senior.