Graduation Speech
Everyone here is probably sitting there with his or her own opinion of high school, despising the cliques and the drama or reminiscing about the sports events and the dances.
Right now, think about one summative statement of what you learned from your four years in high school. (PAUSE) I bet we each have something different. But, after a great deal of soul searching, I came up with a few that I’m pretty sure we all have in common.
Lessons we all learned in high school:
1. The best bathrooms are the ones near the main office.
2. The words “don’t ever tell this to anyone” don’t mean anything, to anyone.
3. Procrastination works.
4. When teachers say your paper only has to be as long as it takes to explain your point, they are lying.
I know you don’t believe me right now, but someday, all of this information is going to come in handy. The fact that you realized where the best bathrooms were and took advantage of them shows that you learned the best way in life is not the fastest. In the long run, the quality of your time is more important than how fast you get from youth to old age. Mahatma Gandhi said, “There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
Raise your arm if any of the following apply: During high school, you changed best friends at least three times (pause), dated a few different people (pause), and sprung from clique to clique once or twice (pause). These experiences have helped you enhance your ability to interact with others. Zig Zigler (I found him/her on the internet where we found every other bit of sketchy research during high school...) once said, “You can get everything in life that you want, if you will help enough other people get what they want.”
Stop counting ceiling cracks because here’s another interactive part. Stand up if you never procrastinated during high school. Everyone else, applaud crazily, you made it despite your habit. Mark Twain preached the value of procrastination. “Never put off until tomorrow what you can...
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