May 28, 2001

Baccalaureate Speech

I wrote this little ditty for my Baccalaureate. Tell me what choo think...

It has been said that today we are leaving something behind us, that we are finishing a chapter of our lives that will never be recreated; that we may never reread. This is not true. We leave nothing behind. All that we have been remains part of who we are, and as we have been shaped and changed by what may have seemed like an interminable four years here; we will emerge into the world as a product of our experiences here. Would we change anything? I would hope not. For every occurrence, even those we regret, has molded us into who we are today. The mistakes we�ve made, the joys we�ve relished, the trials we have overcome and the triumphs that resulted from them; for all of this we are not the same as we once were. There is no reason to mourn what is behind us. High school is not the end of our lives; clich� would compel me to say it is merely the beginning. No longer will our lives consist of planning for our futures, now we must take up our luggage and walk into it. We don�t have to be afraid, because we are not alone. We carry inside us a fragment of home; inside us still resides that freshman who came curiously into high school four years ago. The same freshman who could never imagine walking out of high school. That freshman never would have been able to walk out, they are not capable of doing what we are doing. We are capable because of these four years, we are the same and yet we are wholly different. Let us hope that we are given as much opportunity for growth elsewhere as we have been given here. Let us not leave anything behind, and instead know ourselves through what we have been; through what we will be.