First it’s your last first day of school. Then it is your last homecoming. Last Friday night football game, last winter break, spring break, senior week, senior night. Before you know it, you're stuck in a whirlwind of events, each thing flying by before you know it as you speed through your last year of high school. And then it’s all over. Your last [insert event here] is through. Homework slows, finals are done, and you’re about to cross the stage into the next stage of your life, and move on to the next great adventure. Whether it be college, tech school, or entering the workforce, graduation is your accomplishment. It’s a testament to all of the hard work you have done, as well as the support around you. It’s a testament to 12 years full of (sometimes) hard work, sleepless nights studying, and having fun with the friends around you.
Before you walk across that stage, make sure you look back. Look back on the bad, look back on the good, look back on the amazing, and look bad on the ordinary; the most important thing is that you don’t forget where you came from when you get where you’re going. Your life is going to speed up dramatically in the upcoming years, so don’t force it to speed up any more. Soon, this chapter of your life will be over. You’ll be moved on. The friends you’ve spent your entire life with, and perhaps even the family, won’t be as close anymore. Your friends will be scattered around your state, and perhaps even the country, and maybe, the world. You can’t predict what will happen in the coming years, but what you can do is make sure you enjoy the last of the days you have in this chapter known as high school.
A year out of high school, it is easy for me to see just what you are going through now. Graduation brings uncertainty, and uncertainty is scary. Let me be the first to tell you, however, the years coming up can be the best of your life if you set out to make it that way. Do your best to grab every opportunity as they come to you. Make the most of the years you are given, and leave the past in the past, and look forward to the future.
To the high school graduation class of 2016, as you are about to embark on this new journey into the rest of your life, do your best to look brightly towards the future, and make it yours. However, don’t forget where you come from, and all of the hard work you’ve put into getting where you are now. You’ve had some ups and some downs, but what is inevitably shown by the fact that you’re about to walk across that stage is that no matter what happened, you always got back up.
Be confident in yourself, and make the future exactly what you want it to be.
To the class of 2016, enjoy your last few days as high school students, and walk across that stage and into the next great part of your adventure. It truly is, what you make it.
Good luck.
