{ One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy hurriedly picking up and gently throwing things into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “Young man, what are you doing?”

The boy replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

The man laughed to himself and said, “Don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it into the surf. Then, smiling at the man he said, “I made a difference to that one.” }

"The Starfish Story" written by Loren Eisely.

Hello, my name is Maggie Reed. For those of you wondering why I have the honor of standing in front of you today, I will be honest. I haven’t done anything extraordinary over the past four years. I certainly didn’t get straight A’s or commit to any extracurricular activity long enough to achieve an award, or even try my hardest. I have simply been an average student who most of the time struggled to get by but that's a part of my story. As you go through life you collect stories. Stories that consist of the moments who make us who we are. Most of the time we share the stories that are funny, embarrassing and the ones that show our growth but there are parts of these stories that we sometimes forget to mention. So today I have the honor of standing in front of you to share a part of the class of 2016’s story.

The truth is high school is hard. Growing up is hard. Being an average teenager in this world is hard. As students we are pressured by society that we have to be the best at something to be good at anything, and for the past four years of our life that has all been focused on our achievements at school, but no one seemed to mention that while all of that was on our shoulders, we were supposed to overcome the feelings of failure, disappointment, betrayal, loneliness, self-doubt, and even heartbreak which can all make life a lot harder.

I have certainly made my life harder than it had to be like any other angsty teenager and I felt like giving up, I have felt lonely, I have failed, and I have had my heartbroken, but the one feeling I have never felt is the feeling that no one cared. I started off with a story about a boy who was trying his hardest to save the lives of starfish only for a close minded man to tell him he couldn’t make a difference if he couldn’t save them all, but his response to the criticism was simply seven words that become a catalyst of inspiration and insight, “I made a difference to that one."

As I look around at the familiar faces of the class of 2016, I know that every single student in this crowd would have never made it if it wasn’t for the love and support given to us from the staff at Big Foot High School. These adults who have their own lives, their own problems, their own kids and even families have spent countless hours helping mold us into the people we are today. Silently cheering us on as we struggled through the hard teenage years. These adults who were once strangers have opened their hearts and allowed each and every one of us in.

Whether it was Mr. Palmer making fun of you for doing something weird, stupid, or even normal.

T.C. passing you in the hallway and saying something funny that catches you so off guard that you can’t think of a witty come back fast enough.

Or the dreaded eye roll of Mr. Phillips as he catches you not concentrating in class.

Or the long hours that Ms. Konkel is willing to spend with you after school so you can try and finish a lab.

Or the way Ms. Steadman goes out of her way to try to bring each book to life with props, parties, and food.

Or the way Mr. Dowden jokes around with you as you pretend to know what's going on in advanced math concepts.

Or how Ms.Pitassi will sit there and relearn an entire semester of every math class in order to try to explain it to you even if it takes 100 times.

Or sharing a laugh with Ms. Shepard because she knows that you don’t care about your homework but she never gives up trying to change that.

Or when Bochet had you write down your ten life goals freshman year and tried to convince you that you can achieve anything if you simply put in the effort.

Or Ms. Sanders relentlessly pressuring you to try the hardest you can with a sarcastic comment about how life really works.

Or reading Mr. Waters emails about every small holiday.

Or walking into class and seeing Mr. Haney and just knowing it was gonna be a good day,

Or Ms. Zirngibl’s intense debates about real world problems that sneakily get you involved in the book you're reading.

Or when Krick cheers you on because you are trying your hardest but you just weren't given the gift of knowing how to hit a small flying object over a net.

Or even walking past or into the front office and being greeted by a huge smile from Ms. Grever every single day while you try to smoothly load your pockets full of candy.

All of these men and women go out of their way to make our days a little better and for the past four years, they have been the binding in which holds the chapter of the class of 2016’s story together. They have laughed, cried and cheered us on when we felt like nobody else was even noticing.

Four years have come and gone, but we made it and we made it because these people believed in us and cared even when we didn’t. So as we begin our journey into the next chapter of life sooner or later things will inevitably become hard again and in those moments you might feel like giving up but I hope you remember the "The Starfish Story." I hope you look back at the story of your life and turn the pages slow enough to remember the people who made a difference by helping you through the hard times and choose to keep trying for those people.

So as I stand here today, I think I speak for the whole Class of 2016 when I say,

Thank you. Thank you for adding a smile to the bad days. Thank you for laughing with me as I tried. Thank you for pushing me. Thank you for making me feel important and most importantly thank you for believing in me. Each and every one of you has made a difference in our lives. So thank you for saving another class of starfish.