My Speech!

I realized I never posted my valedictorian speech from high school. So here it is. Don't judge me, okay? This was four years ago... though I still stand by everything I said then, I hope that now I would say it a bit more elegantly...

"Good afternoon Class of 2005, parents, and guests. Today is a formality- an announcement to the world of achievements long since made. I am happy to be standing here so I can let those to whom I am grateful know how much their guidance has meant to me. I want to first acknowledge my parents and sisters, I love you more than I can express; each one of you has inspired me in a different way. To all of my teachers: your classes were the reason that I came to school (when I did) and those of you who I have promised a car, I will follow through one day, cross my heart. And to my friends, especially my best friend, Amy, thank you for putting up with someone as difficult as me; thank you for the pats on the back, the honest advice, the orange juice, and all of the great memories that I’ll carry with me forever. It wasn’t that I was comfortable enough to be myself around you, but instead that I had no choice.

After asking several people about this speech, I realized that I should not discuss something that I hope will impact you years from now in your lives. It occurred to me that many of you will have forgotten what I have said before August and others before the night is over. Instead, I should talk about what is meaningful to us now. But I will try to take the advice of one of my teachers for writing papers. So hopefully this speech will be like a girl’s skirt, long enough to cover what’s important but short enough to keep them interested.

I’ve realized this year that I am not ready to be on my own. This year I have felt so mature, so grown-- as we all have, I’m sure. This year I have felt like an adult, and then something happens. Especially these past few months, where I feel so experienced until a certain event occurs and it knocks me off my pedestal, and suddenly… I feel utterly childish. I am helpless and not as independent and settled as I thought I was before. But in dealing with this loss I have also found some things out about myself.

In the eastern religion of Taoism, the essence of the Un-carved Block is that things or people in their natural simplicity have power within themselves. I know many people may stand up here and say that at this age, we are like clay, ready to be molded into the person we should be. But I want to ask all of you to stay un-carved. We have plenty of expectations to live up to in our lives, as a sister, brother, a son or a daughter, and a friend, and maybe one day a husband or wife and a mother or father. We have to be careful not to become the person that other people want us to be, but instead the person that we have been all along. Our simplicity is what makes us who we are, beyond what others may turn us into. It is when we allow others to change us that we begin to be chipped away, and carved into someone that we are not.

Keeping this in mind, we are all products of what we encounter. Every person that we come in contact with changes us, every event shapes us to a certain extent. So even if we regret people that we come in contact with, or grieve over events that have occurred, we have to appreciate them for what they are-- because everything that has happened to us, good or bad, has led us to this moment.

And now we are here, graduating and suffering the grief of leaving our friends, with whom we have not just grown older, but with whom we have grown. It’s hard to think about leaving everyone because I know if we all came back here in ten years it would not be the same-- Charlotte may be, but we won’t. Nelson Mandela once said that “there is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” It is my hope that everyone here, when that day comes, will be satisfied with who we are.

The best advice I can give all of us, even myself, is to keep our eyes open, to acquire knowledge with an open heart and a receptive mind. Know the rules before you break them; know the people before you hate them. And go cautiously but confidently into the future. So one last thank you to everyone here for listening to me and not falling asleep, and for those of you who did, thanks for doing it quietly. To the Class of ’0-5, see ya in 10 years."