Graduation Speech: Thank You! :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

To begin something new, you must sacrifice something old. To enter the real world, you must graduate your childhood. A childhood is the delicate phase of every adolescent's life where they must mature into their own person, with their own responsibilities. Although every individual will eventually bloom with their own personality, morals, and perspectives, the education and values we learn and see along the way add to the fingers that mold. We begin when we are born, and are taken in by strangers. These priceless people show us love, and just how strong attachments can be. Family ties snare us in their loving webs and become the support network to catch us throughout our youthful falls. They are our first real pictures of people, and their actions and emotions immediately become examples. Throughout our lives we will always find in ourselves patterns of the men and women that raised us. Next, when we are finally able to branch our innocent eyes onto larger horizons, we meet our peers, who will become our precious friends. They will hold our hands on our first days of new adventures, and wipe our tears when our delicate worlds are rocked. Some will be our friends of the moment, and some will stand by our sides, on our sports teams, on our graduations, at our weddings, and during our retirements. While our parents help and support us while growing, our friends will grow with us. These valuable attachments are cherished and needed, and their emotional embrace will always comfort us. With these friends we enter the world of education, our basis to survive in the outside world. We meet the teachers who will give us the instruments to join the orchestra of the world. We love them, admire them, respect them, and above all, learn from them. Forever into our future we will tell stories and reminisce of the memorable teachers and classrooms that taught us so diligently. They teach us the information to decode life, and be able to support ourselves. We excel in the subjects we love, and take this excellence into our future careers. We valiantly struggle to do our best, and pass within the necessary limits. Some breezed by on the wings of their genius while some studied day and night to keep up with our peers. Whichever of these you were, you worked hard enough to make it here. We are watched on by these people who have seen us this far, and will be there for us farther.