It’s June, and for some of us, that means graduation time – a time of traditions and transitions. I’ve had the distinct pleasure and honor of traveling life’s journey with some really fun boys over the years who have developed into some really good young men.
Many of these boys have been clients who have struggled to overcome difficult life obstacles that have been thrown in their way; some have been family friends who have likewise strived to achieve their dreams through the growing-pains of adolescence; and one has been my son, whose quiet determination to succeed with humility and humor, has been an indescribable source of inspiration for me.
I’m so thankful for the many blessings that each and every one has brought into my life. While I usually fill this space with my thoughts and words, today I’d like to share a bit of their stories.
With their permission, I am offering up a glimpse of what some of today’s youth think and feel about their world. First, I have a senior speech written by a graduating high school student that I worked with to help him overcome some learning challenges and anxiety issues. Glad to say he succeeded in beating both and achieving his goal of a high school diploma. Second, I have my son’s valedictorian speech that he gave this week at his high school graduation ceremony. In both of these speeches, we see the hard earned wisdom – and gifts – of believing in yourself and in your community.
I couldn’t be more proud of both of them.
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“Lessons Learned”
High School Senior Speech
By David Kidd
During my entire school career, I have struggled to meet expectations given to me, but several individuals have helped me scrape by. They’ve taught me lifelong lessons that will continue to help me long after I finish school. There are three specific lessons that have had the greatest impact on me.
FIRST, you can’t succeed unless you try. Success, in my book, is accomplishing something when you make the effort. Even winning the lottery requires buying a lottery ticket. There is no such thing as “free” success, even if telemarketers tell you otherwise. Yet, there is no limit on how much success you may have. You just need to apply yourself.
This speech was a very difficult task for me since I have never been good at writing essays, or so I often try to convince myself, and I had spent hours mulling over ideas for the topic, without gaining much ground. Yet, I made the effort. I worked through it. Now here I am giving my speech. I succeeded.
SECOND, if you have strengths, use them. Strengths are skills or interests that allow us to succeed easier. Some of my strengths are music, poetry, and working with technology. They are my strengths because I’m good at them. People enjoy doing things they are good at. If you enjoy creating art, then you should do so – it will make you happy. The same goes for choosing a career. You want a career that you will enjoy, so you should get a job that you’ll be good at. If you have something that you need to accomplish do it in a way that you are good at – use your strengths to help you do it.
Earlier this year, I was asked to write a piece about Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”. The type of piece we wrote was our choice. Poetry is one of my strengths, so I used this strength and wrote a poem about “Hamlet”. Not only was this much easier for me than writing an essay would have been, but I also enjoyed writing it.
THIRD, you decide your limits. If you believe you can accomplish something, you can. If you don’t believe you can do it, you’ll find it to be nearly impossible. If you set no limit, it can be surprising how much you really can do. It is your beliefs about your abilities that determine their limits.
I believed that I could make it through high school. Well, I’ve made it this far, and Graduation is just around the corner. I believed I couldn’t pull off strait A’s, and my transcript agrees with me. I have no limit for where I take my life, so perhaps I’ll surprise myself there, too.
These lessons I’ve learned by listening to peers
My mom and my sisters, for many long years
Success isn’t free; you have to try
Or you can choose to kiss your dreams goodbye
Having success is fun; it’s true
And your strengths make success even easier for you
If you set a limit, that’s where you will stay
So don’t set a limit that gets in your way
These lessons aren’t trinkets to put on a shelf
They’re life-lessons that can help you to better yourself
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Valedictorian Address
By Kevin Montminy
When I was first asked to give a speech representing the Class of 2011, I went where any high school student of my generation would: straight to Google. I typed in Valedictorian speech and immediately over a million different sites were at my disposal to write a fool-proof speech that would incorporate everything a successful speaker needs. Looking over all the different ideas that could be used as the theme to my speech, I realized something extremely important about my school and classmates. No web site, how-to blog, or search engine could truly speak to the special class of which I am a part. I could have picked any vague or indistinguishable idea that sounded great and supposedly addressed these last four years of our lives and the next step we are about to take, but with this class and school, it just didn’t seem right. Instead I closed the internet browser and looked over my high school career and thought about the great things Penns Valley has given me. Memories of all the different moments so far in my life flooded me, and I realized that nothing I said or wrote would do this class and our time together justice.
For all the people sitting here there are an assortment of different personal memories that they carry with them. Collectively, when all these are put together, we have something extraordinary. And that’s what I believe we have here at Penns Valley. Plenty of different school districts pride themselves on their sense of community, but it’s here that I see it the most. What I’ve experienced is a student body that knows each other. I look around up here and see every face of the class of 2011 looking back at me, and I wouldn’t want to be sharing this moment with any other group. High school is only one small part of life, but it has been the most important part of our lives so far.
Many of you will move on to do tremendous things, but one thing I know for certain is you will never forget the parts of your life that have made you who you are today because of what Penns Valley Area High School has given you. In school or out, this class and this time of our lives will be looked back upon as something special. It can’t be defined by dictionaries or the internet but can only be remembered and carried on by each individual sitting here with us tonight. It’s a little intimidating to think that our Penns Valley career is coming to a close. But is it really? If there was one thing I learned growing up here is that Penns Valley will never be something that is over for us. With this school and class, it’s actually a new beginning. The people of this community and school will be there with us as we head off into a new realm of reality.
Remembering our class and the times we had, makes me look forward to the future. As the poet Robert Frost once said, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: “it goes on.” For that, I have to admit I may have used Google, but nevertheless it reminds us that high school is a platform that we are about to jump off of into whatever we may want to pursue. This jump does not have to be a complete blind leap of faith. We have a base that we have established through the years at Penns Valley and now it is our chance to build upon this and make life what we want it to be. The great memories and opportunities of these last years here should excite us to do bigger and better things. They are the building blocks of our life, and I am truly happy to have such a strong foundation that I can attribute to the people of this Valley and school.
Lastly, I want to thank you, Class of 2011, for making my and everyone else’s experience at Penns Valley such a distinguishable and memory-filled stage of my journey in life. Without everyone here, we wouldn’t be what we are. Everyone contributed to add his or her own special touch to defining what this class is about. It’s not what Google or Wikipedia may have told me to write, but this class is even more special because of each person who is about to graduate from this great school. I am proud to be a part of this class and will never forget, no matter where I go in life, what this community and school have done for me. I hope you do the same. With that, congratulations to all of you, and may your dreams fly as high as your hats. Good luck!
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