Kenzie and Bryce

54. My Inspiration.

Kenzie:

"Graduation. Almost everyone gets to have one, if they are lucky. These days you can never tell. A portion of the graduates have been waiting for this day since the beginning of high school. Others are just ready for it to be over so they can move on with their lives. When they do move on, they soon start to realize, they were no where as ready as they thought they were. Some head off to college to further their education. Others choose not to attend college and make the decision to get a job. Then there is those kids who think they need a year off from school and decide to either travel or become a couch potato.

It does unfortunately matter what you choose. If you choose college: in four plus years you could be getting yourself a good job. If you choose the job route: you can be making money as soon as you leave high school. And if you choose to take a year off: that one is probably the worst one. You are behind everyone else, soon your friends will be posting cool pics of them on some beach that you've only dreamed of going to. Their lives will be starting and yours will more than likely be at a stand still.

These are the types of decisions every senior graduating high school will have to make. It is part of becoming an adult -something all of us are in a hurry to become. We all have those people who will be pushing us in a hundred different directions, thinking they know what's best for us. In reality, I think only we know what is best for us in the long run.

We can choose to live in the present and enjoy our time as young adults or we can choose to think way ahead to our futures. A future that can possibly be completely different than one you are currently thinking. Take friends for instance; you start school out with no friends, along the way you make several. Then if you are lucky, you make even more. Freshman year you probably have tons of friends and you think those friends will be with you throughout your entire high school life. By the time senior year comes you've more than likely lost about half of those so called friends. Your ideal future and your friends from freshman year could be so different come the end of your high school life.

You may keep a few friends a long the way and that is okay. It is also okay not to know about your future. Eventually, it will come to you in the most unexpected way. Don't be so upset that some of us already know where we are going to college or where we are going to work. Not everyone is sure of what they want. Not knowing what you want, just means you have to work hard to figure out what you want. Nothing comes easy. If you want something, work for it.

I am so thrilled to be standing up here on this stage, talking to my fellow classmates as the valedictorian. I will be honest, this being up here on stage, I'm not a fan of it. But with several conversations with my parents, the faculty, and my classmates I reconsidered. I worked hard all through school. I worked extremely hard on my school work, and in cheer and soccer. My hard work payed off and it proves that whatever each of you decide to do, I am certain that your hard work will pay off as well. I'm going to miss talking each of you in the halls, I am also going to miss the parties and the crazy rumors people come up with. It is all part of the high school experience. And I am so happy to have spent mine with these people sitting in their navy and grey cap and gowns. We all look ridiculously cute. Thank you and I wish you all nothing but happiness." I finish my speech and it earns me a standing ovation.

Walking back to my seat I see Bryce give me a smile and a wink. I smile back at him and take my seat several rows back.

Over the next hour or so our names get called one by one up to the stage to shake hands and receive our diplomas and get our tassels switched to the other side.

I cheer loudly for all of my classmates but I give Bryce the loudest cheer and he does the same for me. At the end we all throw our caps into the air, signaling our finality of being high schoolers. It is so unreal.