❝ Graduate ❞

Wow, High School has been one tough and fun journey all at the same time. I spent four years in a place I hated, but I made a lot of amazing friends, kept a lot of amazing people who I got to watch grow, and dropped a lot of people who were doing no good for me. I also watched myself grow and shape into someone new; some parts were great, and others aren't but that's what happens... and I will continue to grow. 
I am beyond excited to be graduating and going off to college to start a whole new life. For those of you that do not know, I am going to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and I will be majoring in elementary education and maybe minor in creative writing. I will be spending the next 5 and a half years in Richmond and I literally cannot wait.  I do want to pat myself on the back because I got into all four of the colleges I applied to: Virginia Tech, VCU, Christopher Newport, and James Madison. I always knew in me that I wanted to go to VCU, but when I got accepted into Virginia Tech.... everything changed. My whole mindset changed and I was so sure I wanted to go there. But no, VCU still won my heart.  Everyone always asks me: "Oh well why didn't you choose Tech?" and my answer is: "Because I connect more with VCU".  They sort of make me feel bad... like I feel insulted. They make it seem like VCU isn't as good a school, but it is. I'm also not going into an engineering program... if I was, yeah I'd choose Tech. But I'm going into elementary education and to be completely honest, VCU is an amazing education school.  AND I'M A CITY GIRL OKAY. 
Anyway, in honor of graduating, I'm going to post the graduation speech I wrote last year for my junior year writing final. It was a simple final, but I actually really liked what I wrote! I had to read it in front of the class last year and my long-term english substitute (Ms. Jackson - I love her), was crying at the end of it.  But honestly, I'm really sad to be leaving. I've made so many new friends I never thought I would talk to ever and I'm going to miss them so much. Goodbyes are always so hard!  This graduation speech was inspired by several different songs. There are a lot of old time Taylor Swift songs in here so... :) 

Graduation Speech

            It’s almost surreal, that we are finally getting out of this place. After four plus years, we are finally moving on; some of us are moving on to better things, and some of us are dreading this change. The bottom line is that we are moving on from this place some of us called home or called Hell. And nobody is who you picture them to be.

            I think back to when I was a kid, in the lunchbox days, the firefly catching days and back before the monsters all caught up to us. It was beautiful when we believed in everything. And then middle school, when we are finally discovering ourselves as more of a person. And then High School is where it gets more complicated. You lose friends, you gain friends, and you discover a sort of dislike for some people and a love for some other people. You fall in love and then that completely breaks you, whether it’s with a boyfriend, girlfriend, or best friend. I’ve had people promise me they’d be there for me and then they left me in the dark with a broken flashlight. But high school is all about breaking down and then building yourself back up all while you’re trying to maintain a good GPA. We’ve seemed to lose ourselves when it comes to grades and GPAs – the things we’d do just to get an A in the class… and we fail to remember that a puppet’s only as strong as its strings.

            As much as I want to get out of this place that gave me, honestly, more complaints than pleasantries, I will reluctantly admit that it has shaped me into a strong person who has become so ready to take on the road ahead of me. But that is life, and life will knock you down and just laugh at you and continue to kick you while you’re already down, but that should be your motivation to get up and show this world that you are more than what it simply wants you to be.  Don’t leave yourself in your war path. These walls that they put up to hold us back will eventually fall down.

The fact is, that I’ve grown up with most of you for about seven years if not more. I may not be close or even honestly even want or be acquainted with some of you, but we did this together. And I know I’ll be up until two a.m. thinking back and feeling as if I lost a friend. Maybe I’ll see you again someday, and maybe I won’t. But I’ll tell you, everything is copacetic.

            This is not an easy change, but it is a change we all must endure at some point. We will throw our graduation caps in the air, or maybe that’s just something in the movies but at the end of all of this we will start a new chapter in our books. It’s never simple, it’s never easy; Last year I was a train wreck and now I’m just a mess. But I don’t need to be perfect, and you don’t need to be perfect, just happy. Don’t dream in color and then see this world in black and white. And if there is one thing I can leave you with it’s this: who you are, is not what you did. And I’m nothing like you pictured me to be.