Irelan Bailey

Ms. Parrish

English 2010, 4A

April 10, 2019

Dear Class of 2019

I’d like to first start off by thanking everyone that is currently in this room. By everyone,

I mean Ms. Parrish in the back and all of you who will soon become Granger High School’s

graduating class of 2019. Just to let you know, even though I’m speaking today, I’m graduating

too. In all seriousness, thank you for letting me take up five minutes of your time to talk to you

about important lessons to know after we graduate and what graduation means to me.

Emotions

I know that every one of you in this room has your own mixed personal feelings on what

graduation means to you. Maybe you feel excited, scared, emotional, or even nonchalant when

you hear the word graduation since you’ve probably have heard it for the hundredth time this

year. Or maybe you feel a mix of all those emotions at once. Some seniors are excited for

graduation because they get to have their own sense of freedom, or they get to go out into the

world on their own. However, that thought could be frightening to others. The fact that they’ll

have to leave home, leave their family, possibly live in an entirely new environment, provide for

themselves, and become adults. Whatever you are feeling right now, all I want to say is this,

“Everything is going to be alright, you’ve come this far without giving up and put towards hours

and hours of hard work, you’ve pulled all-nighters on finishing homework and projects to get

good grades to graduate.”

 My View

In my eyes, I view graduation as a celebration of everything that we’ve accomplished

until now, a celebration of our education that we’ve received till now. I’m not just talking about

education we receive from school, I’m also talking about education from everything else in our

lives. We continue to learn throughout our lives, even in moments where we don’t even know it.

What I’m Sharing

Today, I would like to share with you two important lessons that I’ve learned so far in my

life. I hope that me telling you these lessons will hopefully help you after we graduate in about a

month or so. One of these lessons I’ll be sharing with you today is a result of a mistake in my

life. Even though mistakes and failures aren’t the greatest things in the world, I’m glad to have

had failures in my life because I’m able to improve myself, and now I strive to help others who

face similar problems I did, and today, I hope that I can help or inspire someone in this room.

Lesson One

Lesson one, cherish the moments that you experience in life. Precious memories and

experiences are irreplaceable. As we’re young, we should enjoy our life and understand that fifty

or forty years down the road, we’ll be wishing to do the many things that we can do now. I’ve

spent a majority of my life trying to be independent and not really caring about anything that

happened around me. Only when senior year started, I came to realize that I have never really

spent quality time or cherished the moments I had with my family and friends, I realized that this

was as mistake. This mistake taught me how important memories are to us and to cherish them. I

then decided to take action and I soon became grateful for those around me and the time I spend
with them. I felt a positive happy aura around me even on the cruddiest days. Cherish people and

moments in your life.

Lesson Two

Important lesson number two, be brave and take the leap even though you are afraid.

Throughout life, life is going to give you opportunities that will test you. Trying to attain these

opportunities may result in trials and tribulations along the way, but if they’re so hard to obtain,

then I believe that they are worth the risk. Some of the opportunities may be daunting or

frightening to act upon. But, know that being “brave” doesn’t mean you are one hundred percent

fearless. Even the definition of the word “brave” describes it as “ready to face and endure danger

or pain; showing courage”. Being afraid or scared is normal and it can sometimes pressure you

into doing your best.

My Story

At the end of my junior year, I took on an opportunity that changed my life. At first, it

doesn’t really sound as exciting to many people when I say what the opportunity was. But I

promise this opportunity is very important to me. One of my teachers in my junior year pushed

me to take coding classes, here, at school, over the summer. It was a nine-week program,

Monday through Friday, 8 am to 12 pm. I was quite displeased at first with the thought of doing

this for my whole summer. But, I had a love for computers and I had to make the decision on

whether I should go into a career that I wasn’t going to be happy in, or whether I should go into a

career that I had a passion for and loved. I took a couple of weeks to decide, and I finally came to

the point where I decided to try it. Little did I know, I would eventually take more computer

classes and walk on the path towards becoming a Computer Science major. One little
opportunity I was hesitant about changed my entire goal and path in life. Take the leap, because

you don’t know where it’ll land you.

Conclusion

These two lessons have helped me become truly happy and have brought me this far in

life. And now I find that graduation is an opportunity to look back on all of our hard work so far.

I hope that after we, seniors, depart on our own paths after graduation, that all of us can live our

lives and take the leap and more importantly, cherish our lives. I want to finish this speech off by

saying, “Congratulations for making it this far, I hope you continue to bring great success in your

future.” Thank you.