I would like to begin today by welcoming all the friends and family that were able to come celebrate this day with us; by thanking the administration and faculty for all that you’ve done for us graduates these past four years; and by congratulating the soon-to-be alumni on surviving these past four years. Today – June 6, 2005 – marks a milestone in our lives. We have spent the last thirteen years learning, writing, adding, subtracting, and procrastinating all for this moment. This moment in which each one of us can say, “I made it. I accomplished something great.” Because, in reality, this day, this graduation is more than something great. The diploma that we will receive is our proof that we have the ability to conquer any obstacle, to do more than what is asked of us, and nobody can take that away from us.
High school graduation is an unforgettable event in every man or woman’s life, and the honor of being granted the opportunity to be a leading figure in the momentous event is overwhelming. I am able to speak to you today because I was lucky enough to be this year’s salutatorian, second in the class.
And today, we are all winners. Today tells us that each one of us has been blessed with a special ability, which is really what the theme of this graduation is: that these thirteen years of education have armed us for the battle that is life. Thomas H. Huxley, an English biologist, once said, “Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.”
When it ought to be done… I think, at times, that this aspect of action may go overlooked. We, as a people, tend to focus on what was done, what was not done, and what could have been done, but we fail to appreciate the timing of the moment. We fail to appreciate that a man saw his opportunity and snatched it like his life depended on it.
I, for one, do not believe in fate or destiny. I do, however, believe in chance. Life, in my view, can be broken down into two main categories: choice and chance. For the most part, we choose the path that we walk. We choose to eat eggs or pancakes in the morning. We choose whether or not we do the homework assignment. We choose to be a lawyer, teacher, or mechanic. On the other hand, there are forces in life that we cannot control, and it is how we handle these situations that defines us as people.
We have all been there, each and every one of us. We have all faced, seen, or read about that moment – that critical moment – where action, or lack of action, could have an astounding impact on our lives.
On a smaller scale, we have all had first hand experience with missed opportunity and poor timing. Who here hasn’t waited until the last night to write a paper or do a presentation or a yearlong biology project? So instead of handing in your best work, you sit at the computer doing sub-par work at all hours of the night while your mother questions you about why it wasn’t done before.
Right now you might be saying to yourself, “But it still got done; no harm, no foul.” In the real world, however, sometimes timing is everything. Sometimes we cannot afford to wait or miss an opportunity. A simple look at our own American history will tell us this. If Thomas Jefferson had not been the visionary he was and purchased Louisiana, would we have a west coast today? If John Kennedy had attacked Cuba, would the Cold War have escalated into World War III? If warning signs had not been overlooked, could the greatest tragedy ever on this land been averted?
How many times have or will we end up kicking ourselves?
This is my plea, my fellow graduates, as we continue on our journey – we cannot spend our lives kicking ourselves. When we see the opportunity arise, we must seize it and do what is right by ourselves and our fellow man. Ability is not a question; the fact that we are all here proves that we can do whatever we wish. The question is making the most of it.
Whether you consider him famous or infamous, one of the most influential artists of our generation, Tupac Shakur, once said, “The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.” We cannot sleep on life – we must live it.
i thought this whole board knew where he was going to college 
