How simple life can be, how wonderful it is to take the time to appreciate your surroundings. The opportunities offered me during my four years at County High have been amazing. I have begun to understand all the potential I have to live life. I don't believe it takes a trip abroad to realize all we take for granted here in Hometown, USA. However, amongst the clutter that fills our lives, seldom do we choose to stop and reflect. Today is one day we intentionally set aside for the sentimentality we rarely experience. In only a few months, many of the graduates in front of you will leave home for universities, travel, or jobs. Today is not only your day to acknowledge our accomplishments, but also a time for us to acknowledge all you have given us. Having paid due appreciation to the relationship between each person in this room, whether teacher, friend, or family, I now address the 2012 graduating class. Of all the lessons learned in and out of school, the most important may still elude us. What have we really learned these 17 or 18 years? Perhaps if we consider this question...
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.
Nathan, R. (2005). My freshman year: what a professor learned by becoming a student. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Tagg, John. “Why Learn? What We May Really Be Teaching Students.” About Campus. 2004. Print.
We have learned a lot this year. All the things we have learned all fold back to planning for the future. Not just getting in the college, but also studying for anything. The things we have learned were GPA, Learning Style, Mindset, Academic Honesty, Time Management, and the THOrT Map.
Being Marefat's first graduating class to complete all four years, one can say we've acquired a higher level of school wisdom than any previous class. We've formed traditions, we've set records, and we've made a lot of friends along the way. I remember our freshman year when we could use the excuse of being a new school for every shortcoming we encountered. I remember our sophomore year, the last time I cleaned my bedroom, when Marefat had its first senior class, and the school seemed to shrink for some reason. Last year we were the juniors, and we conquered the SAT tests: And made it through those busy days where you hadn't quite found room in your schedule to pencil in a bathroom break, dinner or sleep. Well, this year we were the kings and queens, there was Star Wars, Starbucks, and a certain football team lost its winning streak to the mighty Knights. Looking back we can see our accomplishments and the marks we made. Now, we must take all that we have learned in our years at Marefat and apply it to our future. Just as we have set traditions here, we must enter the world ready to tackle new problems and work out new solutions. We are the ones who can break all of those records that have been set, and have our names etched in history. It's our turn -- the world is ours and we just have to decide what we want to do with it.
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.
Hello friends, family, and peers. Today I stand before you not as one voice of eighty, but as eighty voices joining into one. Class of 2022, we made it. On this stage, we are not only graduating, but we are taking our next big step in life. We are about to embark on a new adventure. We are going to face things we have never faced before. The future has so much in store for us. So look around, smile, take it all in. Every test we have studied for, every project we have put countless hours into, every single bit of homework that we have stressed over has landed us at this moment.
These three lessons were the most significant things I’ve learned while attending school. From kindergarten rules all the way to beginning the road to finding myself. Spending more than half of my life in school I’ve dealt with failure, achievement, and everything in between. I’ve learned great life-lessons that have impacted me greatly not just for the time being, but
Are we there yet? I have asked this question many times on road trips, only to hear the answer, "It's only one more mile, I promise." Of course, our destination was never just one more mile. It seemed as though we would never reach our destination. The one idea I neglected by asking the question, "Are we there yet?" is the notion that it's not the destination that is important, but the journey itself.
Every senior looks forward to an amazing, and unforgettable senior trip. This trip represents the celebration of so many struggles, and hard work over the four years of high school. For others it might be the great joy of going out of state for the first time, and this time with no parents coming along. For me it turned out to be a surprise because I had no idea I was going to graduate early, for which I was able to assist. Yet for me, my senior trip turned out to be and adventure due to the many struggles I had to go through and the surprises it led to.
Nathan, R. (2005). My freshman year: What a professor learned by becoming a student. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Good evening parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and friends. I would like to thank you all for coming to this very special day. I know how proud you must be. As we have grown over the years, there are many stages we all have gone through. From learning our shapes and colors, to getting our first kiss in middle school, or how about explaining to our parents why we skipped school because the principal called home. As we remember these days, things that we've done will be with us forever. But this is only the start of our journey. The day has come where we say goodbye to the big yellow buses, assemblies, assigned seating, and attendance policies. Are you really gonna miss it? For some of us maybe not right away. But eventually we will so for us to be here it is not necessarily an achievement, but a privilege. All of us have been in school over half our lives. To graduate is one more step we've taken in our lives.
As an educator, there is always room for reflection and growth. Being in this class has provided an opportunity for both. From my knowledge gained in this class I believe that I have become smarter and have learned how to implement different tool into my teaching as well as general life as a teacher. Of the topics discussed in this class, commitment to students, avoiding burnout and reflective practices had the biggest impact on my professional growth.
To begin something new, you must sacrifice something old. To enter the real world, you must graduate your childhood.
Graduation: the last day that I would unwillingly set foot on the fields of Horizon High School. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest, and tried so hard to keep my feet moving one after the other in order to maintain my perfect stature. After the two hour wait of opening speeches, class songs, and the calling off of the five hundred plus names that were in front of me, it was finally my turn. As my row stood up and we walked towards the stage it had set in at last, this is it, I am done. My high school career ended on that night, but it didn’t close the book that is my life, it only started a new chapter, and with it came a whole slue of uncertainties.