Greetings classmates! Today is the day in which we look upon each other not only as friends, enemies, partners, students, or classmates, but also as adults. Adults who have their own unique points of view and natural talents that could get them far in life as independent individuals. Our lives begin now, as we each walk out of here with a diploma in our hands, we are free to write our own stories and determine where our lives go from here. I can’t tell what will happen for each of you, but learning alongside you these past 14 years, I can tell that each of you have potential to do something great, you just need to be brave and smart enough to go for it. This is probably one of the biggest responsibilities that we are going to be offered in our lives and I wish each of you luck throughout your incredible and hazardous journey, the journey we call life. Although, I am not going to lie, this journey won’t be easy, there will be times when you might feel like giving up. If you do have one of these moments, try to pull through it and know that you are not alone in your own problems, everyone has them, there is someone out there who will understand how you are feeling.

I will try not to forget my fellow classmates and how I’ve come to be such good friends with most of them and I can only hope that they won’t forget me. Our freshmen year, I wasn’t sure how I should feel about going here because after high school that’s pretty much where you find out who you’re going to be and, like some of you, I was also pretty unsure, but as time went on we got to invent who we become. I think that is one of the greatest powers that a human being can have, those powers being the ability to feel, love, decide, and, most of all, grow up. On our sophomore year, we slowly but surely began to develop a sense of independence and freedom, with some of us being given the privilege and freedom to drive our own cars. One hard lesson that some of us learned that year was the true meaning of the word responsibility, because with our driver’s licenses we were given our first real life privilege as an adult. Because with that tiny little card we were given the ability to go where we want.

The second hardest year I’ve ever faced was in my Junior year, that was the year that me and a large portion of my fellow classmates were assigned to take the “dreaded” Chemistry class. I have heard a lot from my classmates and I think I speak for pretty much everybody here when I say,” Chemistry is not for everyone, and it sure as heck isn’t a walk down Easy Street.” That year was exceptionally challenging in most of the classes not just Chemistry, in Creative Writing, that class really pushes your creativity and writing skills to the next level. However, in the end we all managed to push through it and make it all the way to our Senior year together. That year was the culmination of everything that we have learned these past few years both before and after high school. It was on that year that would stand as the big decider on where our lives would go from here.

I think that was the year in which most of us looked back on our previous school years and asked ourselves one of the most trivial questions of all time, “What should I do now?” Every time someone asks that question I think that each time the same answer should be, “Try your best and keep moving forward.” These two bold expressions have two very simple meanings, when I say, “Try,” I mean do your best to accomplish your goals, do the best you can to do the right thing, and try to make things better not only for you, but for everyone. When I say, “Keep moving forward,” I mean that you should live in the moment and realize that your life is now and no one can decide how it goes from here except you. Always look to the future and be sure to reflect the past and never waste your time pondering on what could have been and try to look for what will be. The past only defines who you were, the present reflects on who you are going to become, but for the future there are all kinds of possibilities on who you are.

With all of that being said I’d like to give a well rounded thank you to all of the teachers who have taught me everything that I know all the way from Kindergarten all the way to 12th Grade. Also thank you to my family for helping me in my school work and in getting me this far in life, I don’t know what I would do without you. And to all of my friends and fellow classmates, I wish you all the best of luck in college, your careers, your goals, and most of all life.