Graduation Speech

Giving my high school graduation speech was one of my proudest moments. In the last week of my senior year, I found out that I was the valedictorian of my high school. Although I knew my grades were high, I did not know I was at the top of my grade. With this surprise came an assignment that I took very seriously: a commencement speech. I wanted to give my classmates the send off they deserved and not have them suffer through another speech that did not connect with the grade as a whole. I spent many hours the last week of school going over ideas for themes with peers and parents, writing and scraping drafts, and practicing speech-giving. Writing speeches is a different kind of writing. Where words should roll off the tongue rather than impress with meaning and complexity, and timing and logical flow take on much more importance. I really enjoyed the process of writing the speech. Figuring out what jokes to put where, reflecting on developing a clear message about how I felt about the last four years and the future, and working with people I cared about to make the best speech I could give. After many hours of practice, the delivery of the speech came out better than I could have hoped for and the praise for the work I had put in coupled with the excitement of graduation was a transcendent feeling. This experience has made me consider pursuing writing in some further capacity. Of course, writing is a necessity in any future career, however, a career dependent on exposition and related to my interest in science, health, and economics, such as journalism, might be a great fit.