Valedictorian Speech-You Held Your Pride Like You Should Have Held Me
I have a lot of thank you’s to make. So I hope you are all listening.
Here’s to the parents. Those who are above and beyond us. Who taught us that our worth is based solely on a few big, fat, red letters on our report card.
Here’s to the magazines and T.V. shows. Those who are wealthier and seemingly wiser than us. Who taught us that our worth is based solely on the brand of jeans, the hairstyle we have, and the natural shape of our body.
Here’s to the movies and novels. Those who are predictable and drain the picture in our head of how it’s supposed to go. Who taught us that we need a man to save us from our problems, that we’re incomplete without one, and we have a happy ending only once we find a man.
Here’s to the brothers and sisters. Those who are always better, stronger, smarter, faster, happier. Who taught us that no matter how hard we try, we will never compare to their success.
Here’s to the heart breakers and backstabbing friends. Those who are out there only for themselves and don’t think about other people’s feelings or what they’re going through. Who taught us that we’re a waste of time, that we deserve to die, that there is something wrong with us.
And here’s to society. For teaching us to live a certain way. Go to school, graduate, get a bachelor’s degree, find a stable job even if you don’t enjoy it endlessly, get married, have children, discipline them. You taught us to live by everyone else’s rules. You taught us to live by making everyone else proud. You taught us that our life isn’t ours. You never once taught us to live for ourselves. To believe what we want, even if it’s not what everyone else thinks. To do what we want, even if it doesn’t guarantee money in the future.
The only reason I’m up here today as valedictorian is because I lived every day just to get A’s. I was taught that that was the way to happiness. And I’m up here today, looking back. I realized that there was not one time in my 4 years here where I stopped and thought “God, I’m happy.” That’s not living. That’s just getting by. You know, high school is supposed to be the greatest 4 years of your life. No one ever told me that it would drain you until you didn’t even have one drop of energy left after staying up all night just to get done the homework for 4 AP classes and then having a nervous break down from all the stress, lack of sleep, lack of food, and lack of happiness. No one ever warned me that these 4 years would leave me exhausted to the point where I’m sick every day when I wake up for school. All anyone ever warned me was about how much colleges looked at our grades and SAT scores and to plan my career and still do extracurricular activities and apply for every scholarship and to get a job so you can save up money because you’ll be in loans when you finish college. And I can’t even think of what my major is going to be because I haven’t found my passions because I haven’t been able to live these past 4 years. All I can think of is when I go to college, I better get all A’s and go into a major that will lead me to wealth. High school never taught me to love myself, put my happiness first, and that I do have a voice.
I’m not up here because I’m driven, determined, ambitious, dedicated, or a dreamer. I’m up here because I was brought up that grades were what defined me. Other than my looks and weight. I’m up here because I wanted to feel worthy. I wanted to feel like I had a purpose. But let me tell you what they don’t want you to know. I can get a perfect SAT score, a 100% in all my classes, and get accepted to an IV league college. But I will still feel empty. Grades did not define me like I was taught. I’m still empty like before. But unlike before, I have no creativity or passions. I wasn’t taught to believe what I wanted and go do what I wanted to do.
Those who go head first into what they love to do, even if they’re bound to fail, those are the real “valedictorians.” They are the ones that are living. The rest of us are just surviving. Living in the comfort that grades and wealth will guarantee us tomorrow. We can plan, and plan, and plan our future as much as we want to, but the future will still never be guaranteed. What is guaranteed is today. The best way to handle today is by living it.
Society is wrong. Don’t do what I did and waste 4 years draining yourself. Don’t just survive. Do what you need to do for the now.
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