The year 2012 marks an era of new beginnings and bold adventures. Years from now, when we look back on our senior year, we’ll remember a year of good friends, hard work and planning for the future. As graduating seniors we will create different paths to our own success. Some will choose the superhighway and some will choose the winding road — each person deciding their own level of happiness. It has been said, "To know where you are going, one must remember where you have been." Tonight, the Class of 2012 will start a new chapter, moving toward new endeavors and taking on greater challenges, making this evening the perfect time to reflect on our past here at County High School. As we look back on our senior year, we will remember it as the year the voters of Stoll passed a new school bond creating the promise of a new high school. The year our girls’ basketball team went to state, and our football team went undefeated in league. We will remember the cold, wet nights in the stands watching football; the cold, wet nights in the stands watching soccer and well, ... you get the idea. We will remember working endless nights creating our homecoming floats. Maybe not Rose Bowl Parade material, but they did manage to roll, and we had fun! Laughing at each other and laughing with each other, we have had a great time together. Let us not forget the Lawn Chair Drill Team practices at O Dark Hundred — the Tolo dance and the Senior Prom. And on a personal note, a great 18th birthday — Thanks, guys! Tonight as we go our separate ways, let’s not forget that we have the ability to be whatever we want to be. To climb mountains, to reach the stars, to stretch as far as we can imagine.
The team was ready, we had been working extremely hard for the past seven months for this. We were all in great shape and very rested. A few of the returning players were meeting me at my house to carpool to the final game of the state championship tournament. Everyone knew that the hard work had paid off when we won the semi-final game the preceding day.
Class of 2012, we've finally made it, but not without the help of our parents, teachers and mentors along the way. Maybe what they did for us was that they were a good rudder and we're the ship, and they got us to the sea where we remember who we are. Because we all get in that fog, where we forget who we are or what we're about, we get overwhelmed. I mean I've been there plenty of times in my life. But we're not going to remember most of our lives until the end. But we will remember certain moments. Maybe it's our first 4.0 report card, maybe it's our first 100 percent biology test, maybe it's our first homerun, our first touchdown. Whatever it may be, it will stay with us forever. Many of us have been together through elementary, middle and high school, and we have all had to work hard and remain focused to be where we are today. All change happens in a minute. Your life changes in a moment. Something triggers you and you finally make a decision and it all shifts. As years go by, your body is going to change, your relationships are going to change, your attitude is going to change. Change is automatic, but progress is not. Our progress has brought us here tonight, and tonight will become one of those moments that we will cherish forever.
My unforgettable senior football season was coming to a close. The whole team knew that this was the last game of football we would ever play together. After this game, it would never be the same. I had been waiting my whole life to experience what I was about to face in the next few hours.
Looking back on my three years at Twin Cities Academy, I find myself wondering how all these years came and went so fast. I still watch myself walking through the same halls and sitting in the same classrooms as I did back in 6th and 7th grade and I’ve seen myself grow so much, mentally, socially and physically. I still remember everything that has happened throughout my years, the best of times, and the worst.
I would like to begin this evening by welcoming all of my classmates, staff, parents and guardians, the school board and superintendent, friends, and relatives to the commencement of the class of 2012.
Graduation is an exciting time in a person’s life, especially a high school graduation. When I think of family and friends gathering together to celebrate a joyous occasion, I feel I accomplished my strongest goal. It never occurred to me that graduation would be the end of my youth and the start of adulthood. Graduating from high school was an influential event that gave me an altered outlook on my existence. Life before graduation, preparing for graduation day, and commencement day overwhelmed me for reality.
Being Marefat's first graduating class to complete all four years, one can say we've acquired a higher level of school wisdom than any previous class. We've formed traditions, we've set records, and we've made a lot of friends along the way. I remember our freshman year when we could use the excuse of being a new school for every shortcoming we encountered. I remember our sophomore year, the last time I cleaned my bedroom, when Marefat had its first senior class, and the school seemed to shrink for some reason. Last year we were the juniors, and we conquered the SAT tests: And made it through those busy days where you hadn't quite found room in your schedule to pencil in a bathroom break, dinner or sleep. Well, this year we were the kings and queens, there was Star Wars, Starbucks, and a certain football team lost its winning streak to the mighty Knights. Looking back we can see our accomplishments and the marks we made. Now, we must take all that we have learned in our years at Marefat and apply it to our future. Just as we have set traditions here, we must enter the world ready to tackle new problems and work out new solutions. We are the ones who can break all of those records that have been set, and have our names etched in history. It's our turn -- the world is ours and we just have to decide what we want to do with it.
What an interesting four years it has been. I know I'm not alone when I think back to freshman year and remember the first time I stepped out onto our football field ... oh wait, never mind. And who could forget the very first time we stood in awe in the middle of our gymnasium on the Wildcat logo ... oh, scratch that, too. Seriously now, I know everyone remembers their first dip in the school swimming pool ... am I right?
Let me begin by saying that I am very honored to be addressing the County High School Class of 2012 as students of this institution for the last time. We've spent these last four years creating some serious memories: four years of chieftain power, leaking roofs, questionable Homecoming skits, and musical principals. Four years of good teachers, bad teachers, new teachers, old teachers. Four years of youth, music, growing up and breaking free. Four rubber chickens, four yearbooks, four ASB presidents and four chubby bunnies.
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Sitting in the backseat of the car, I used to bombard my family with these questions. On our summer road trips I was so anxious for the destination that I failed to appreciate the journey. However, as time passed and I grew older, I realized that it was the journey that was important and not the destination.
Today completes the chapter of our lives that we have been comfortable with for the past 13 years. High school may be over, but we still have a long exciting way to go in life. From our four-year experience we will take with us the memories, good and bad, and relationships we have made with each other and the County High School staff. From these experiences we have learned and grown and will continue to do so. Growing up and moving on will be a huge part of our lives in the next few months. The decisions we will make come in-part from the choices we have already made.
Class of 2012, as we sit here this evening, I would like you to take a look at the classmates sitting around you. Many students have given countless hours of time, energy, and passion to worthy cuases that they have been a part of throughout high school. However, those aren't the only students deserving of recognition this evening. We have students here tonight, who have taken a stand for what they believe in, not even hesitating to compromise their reputations.
As freshman, we came home from school with the mentality that we were no longer children, but rather had entered into a new stage of life. Everything seemed different and new; we weren’t the big kids on campus anymore. We no longer were the persons being looked up to, but rather were the persons looking up to an entire school of older students. We remember joining our firsts clubs, going to dances, and having Orientation days.
Having spent twelve years of my school life in just one small red brick building, the years tend to fade into each other. But the year I remember most clearly and significantly is my senior year of high school, where I finally began to appreciate what this institution offered to any student who stopped to look. Before, school had been a chore, many times I simply did not feel motivated toward a subject enough to do the homework well, and seeing the same familiar faces around ever since I was 5 years old grew very tiring soon enough. But I began to see things from a different angle once I became a senior.
Graduation: the last day that I would unwillingly set foot on the fields of Horizon High School. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest, and tried so hard to keep my feet moving one after the other in order to maintain my perfect stature. After the two hour wait of opening speeches, class songs, and the calling off of the five hundred plus names that were in front of me, it was finally my turn. As my row stood up and we walked towards the stage it had set in at last, this is it, I am done. My high school career ended on that night, but it didn’t close the book that is my life, it only started a new chapter, and with it came a whole slue of uncertainties.