Good evening parents, staff, esteemed guests, community members, and fellow grads. I’m incredibly honoured, and extremely overwhelmed to be speaking on behalf of the C.S.S. graduating class of 2025.
Grads, miraculously, we’ve made it. It was nothing like High School Musical, but we made it anyway.
Today is the culmination of all our hard work - our blood, sweat, and many tears. These past five years have seen joy and anguish, mistakes and failures, an inordinate amount of indoor track meets, and at the end of the day, success. While parting is such sweet sorrow, I would like to say a few words, if you please.
First, of course, some thanks are in order. To the staff here at CSS: for putting up with us for so long, I’m not sure how you managed it, because I can barely do it myself. To our teachers: also, for putting up with us, but mostly for all your dedication to our learning, as well as the support and wisdom you’ve provided to us throughout our high school years.
To our wonderful community: for providing an honestly absurd level of support to our school over the years.
To our fantastic student council for organizing our dances and games, the start of many nostalgic memories from tenth to twelfth grade - Sienna and Miley, I’m looking at you.
To our friends: for the brightness that you’ve brought to our lives, and the amazing memories we’ve had. Finally, thank you to our parents and family: for feeding, clothing, raising, and loving us for roughly 18 years now. Without your guidance and care, we wouldn’t have made it to this stage today.
Naturally, this wouldn’t be a valedictorian speech without a little existential crisis. Sitting here today, I see a group of kids who I’ve known for my whole life, a group of people who are about to move on to their next grand adventure - which is completely paralyzing, if I’m being honest. Many of us are about to move away from home, away from a life we’ve grown used to for the past 18 years, and it’s only natural to be a little bit terrified of that sort of change. The leap is a vast one to make, but regardless if you’re ready or not, you’ll have to make it at some point. As the great Lemony Snicket said, “If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives.” And I believe that, regardless of how petrifying the change is going to be, each and every one of our graduates is capable of making it through. We brute-forced our way through- as they called it -"unprecedented times,” and we’ve made it all the way to graduation despite it all!
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in The Great Gatsby: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall,” and for us that has never been more true. The future is upon us now, and fellow grads, I see that future in each of you. I see passions that will drive you to change not just your lives, but the lives of people around you for the better. I wish you all the best in the upcoming fall and beyond, and remember, grads, that history has its eyes on you.
