Graduation Speech :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

When I was chosen to speak tonight, I thought that as a track athlete it would be appropriate to compare life to a race. Life is a race, a race to each milestone in our lives. Kindergarten through fifth grade we had just entered ourselves into the race called education. We were about to test our strengths and find our weaknesses. The first day of kindergarten we weren't exactly sure what we were in for. Some of us began to write our names and learn to read, while others ate Elmer's glue and pulled little girls' pigtails -- you know who you are. Middle school was our warm-up and preparation. We stretched ourselves to meet new people and some of them are still sitting next to us today. Our crackling voices and newfound interests in the opposite sex who we usually met at the Skate Deck, distracted us from our upcoming race, but our teachers reminded us that our warm-up in middle school is like the race we would face in high school. We began choosing a path and preparing mentally for the challenge ahead. Freshman year, Mr. Donney's starting gun scared us out of the blocks. We met those we would be running the race with and looked up to those who began the race before us. And for those of us who are in the vertically-challenged front row, including myself, (Sarah, Deja) we literally looked up to them. Some of the challenges we faced as freshman were which lunch line to stand in and deciding which one of the Fleming twins was cuter. To this day that's still a dilemma. Throughout the year, we were forced to pick up speed in order to avoid the traditional freshmen trash can and locker stuffings. Sophomore year, we were finally ahead of others and gaining respect. Having moved up in the race, our timidity vanished, and allowed us to participate in assemblies and other school events. And of course Mr. Dononey scared us again, this time using his biology experiments. Junior year, we were finally upperclassmen. Our race began to fall victim to senioritis a year early. But Mr. Burt's chemistry experiments really lit a fire under us. To this day, I am still not sure if Mr. Burt's eyebrows grew back. And of course, the baseball team drove us to be better. I think they used a Chrysler Minivan, but you'd have to ask Andy, Hal or Beau about that.