My very late graduation speech.

Back in April I tried out to give a graduation speech. My speech was not chosen and I was very sad. My good friend Taryn was chosen instead. Sad as I was about the missed opportunity, her speech was much better than mine and I am honestly glad they chose hers. However, I usually share the writings I am most proud of. If anyone is interested, here is my speech:

Sophomore year I took Honors Chemistry and Mrs. Embleton insisted that before she will give me my diploma, Mrs. Warr will first ask me what Earth’s atmospheric makeup is. I hope she was lying, but just in case, it’s 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen.

Thank goodness that wasn’t the only thing I learned. Real fast, just to name a few more things I had to memorize throughout high school: The mitochondria is the power house of the cell, Ligaments connect bone to bone, and I learned the quadratic equation. I learned SOAPstone and un poco espanol and that the House of Representatives has 435 members and the Senate has 100 members.

But facts weren’t the only thing we learned because high school is an educational experience on more than one front. I learned how to do my homework to fit what a teacher is looking for, which my mom says is one of the most important things she learned in college.  I learned which drinking fountains had the coldest water and I learned the best places to take naps in the school.  I learned how to push teacher’s buttons on a personal level. (For that I apologize to every teacher that ever had me, in particular I’d like to apologize to Mr. Henry.) I learned how to laugh when people ask me about embarrassing stories from sophomore year. (If you haven’t heard my chick pick story, you’re missing out.) I learned that you won’t remember the sleep you lost but you will remember the grade you got, another lesson I plan to take with me to college.

I learned that being smart is incredibly important, but I also learned that being smart will only get you so far. This world is full of people. People are what matter in this world. Social skills are so much more important than many people realize and while you can make up for not being the smartest by being kind, it is much harder to make up for being rude by being smart.  If you can’t be friends with people who are different than you, then you’re in for a rude awakening.

Relationships that matter are never going to be easy. That goes for families, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, roommates, pets, everyone. If you want someone in your life, make it apparent. It’s hard to be vulnerable. But being vulnerable is what makes people real and beautiful. Owning your shame and living your life with open arms to love and accept yourself and love and accept others is incredibly liberating and incredibly powerful.

 Everyone here graduating has a little bit of “I want to change the world” inside them. If I’ve learned anything about this world, it’s that you don’t have to single handedly change the world or single handedly change people. You just have to show people that you love them and they will change both on their own.

Along with that I’d like to say that Mental health matters. Your life matters. You matter. I’m going to make a bold statement and say that I think that almost every single person in this room will one day find themselves standing in a mental hospital, if they haven’t already done it. You might be there for an appointment, or you might be admitted. Or maybe you will be visiting your best friend. It might be your spouse or your child. Maybe it will be a parent or a sibling. I won’t lie to you, it will probably be a little scary, but it is not the end. Life goes on. Life gets better. Love goes on. Hope is real. Decide to care about your own health and the health of the people that matter to you. Deciding to care changes the quality of the outcome big time.

We will all leave today and head on our own way in different directions to different places. For some of us, the next step is college or trade school. For others it’s a mission. Maybe for you the next step is getting married. Some of us aren’t sure yet, and that’s okay too. There isn’t one right answer.

Take a chance, and say “yes” to something you are afraid to do. Stand up for yourself and say “no” when you have to, no still means no.  Even though we are now “real adults” it’s still okay to say “I don’t know.” Even though more people will be depending on us more from here on out, it is still okay to say “I’ll get back to you.” Like when your parents ask when you’re going to move out and stop eating all their food, say “I don’t know, I’ll get back to you.”

Even though we are now “real adults” it’s still okay to be afraid. Change is scary. Letting go of things that are comfortable is scary. But it is scarier if you don’t control the things you can control. If you don’t like where you are in life, change it. Don’t let life drag you forward. Step up and start making decisions. Baby steps are okay, but make them purposeful baby steps.

You are smart. You are capable. You have more power than almost everyone in all of human history. You can wake up every day and take a hot shower with clean water. You can hold all kinds of incredible information about the universe in the palm of your hand. You are powerful. Do something with that power. We live in a time where we as humans are creating and solving problems with incredible speed. All I am asking you to do is solve more problems than you create.

Life very rarely goes as planned. Learn to be flexible. Learn to roll with the punches. Sometimes the best things come from the biggest trials and the most unlikely circumstances. As crazy and chaotic as life is, someday we will all find happiness and find exactly what we’re looking for in life. Or we won’t. I sincerely hope we all find something better than we could’ve possibly imagined.

I’d like to close on a bit of a lighter note if that’s okay by saying: Don’t give advice, because it always comes back to bite you and don’t take advice because it never works. So, here’s my advice. Hydrate, exfoliate, and prioritize your assignments to finish them in order of when they are due. In other words: Hydrate. Exfoliate. Procrastinate.