Iphone

This is a blog I wrote from my iPhone- this is sick.

High School Graduation Speech

Im no valedictorian- not by any means, but my school has an interesting way of choosing who is going to give a high school graduation speech: they let the students vote.  So I got voted to give the speech (probly because i talk alot). Also my cap is the one with legos-im very proud of that. Here it is..

Hi my name is Jordan Boyce.  I have been going to Masters Regional Academy for 5 years, and it is my honor to give the graduating speech for the class of 2008.  Speechwriting isn’t easy, ill have you know.  It is a tedious process where many steps must be taken before there is a final work.  When beginning to write this very speech a terrible thought hit me- Here I am writing a speech, but what about all my classmates!? Will they ever learn how to correctly prepare a high school graduation speech?  This horrific thought set off a series of other horrific thoughts: What about all the people I am reading my speech to!? What if you don’t know how to prepare a high school graduation speech!  After surveying the horrible situation at hand I had a Eureka moment.  I have decided that I am going to share with everyone here the steps involved in writing a high school graduation speech, but on the other hand…I have to talk about the class, right?  Luckily, the process of writing a speech is the exact process we as students have gone through over the past four years. 

When the time comes for you to write a high school graduation speech you must first lay out all of your ideas. Some ideas you will use, others you pass on.  Our first day of 9^th grade we had 20 students, as you can see we are graduating with just 14- not all of your ideas will make it through.  As you work through your ideas eventually you get settled into the ones you are going to base your speech around. This is where I reveal step 2: Writing.  Here your individual ideas begin to merge into a rough draft.  In 10^th and 11^th grade our class had slowly begun to take shape. Through trips, chapels, and life our class began forming into the graduating class you see today.  Have you ever heard the phrase “Writing is a process”? So is life, and we were going through 7 hours of life a day together.  Individual ideas intertwined with others began forming the personality of our class, and through our friendships we became more life a family.   But here I must warn you- You will go through times of extreme pressure when writing your speech.  There have been times of great pressure we have put on each other and our class over the past four years.  In fact, if you did not know our class well you might just think we did not get along, but it was during these hard times where we started discovering who we were.  Stuck in a class of 14 people for hours on end teaches you alot about yourself.  It was during these times of pressure we discovered that hidden away within all of us was a leader- just waiting to be shaped.

After your ideas are combined to form the rough draft of your speech you are ready to meet step 3: The Editing Process.  Here is where your labor of love will be given to a higher literary authority to be edited.  This speech was edited by Mr Dube, and Mr Sierakowski, so if you dont like it: blame them.  For the past two years, Masters has surely been an editing process.  For us students the editing process has been a realizing who we are and deciding who we are going to be.  This past year the teachers looked at the rough drafts of our lives, and began the editing process.  We were challenged.  Our standards were challenged.  Our faith was challenged.  Our actions were challenged.  Im glad to tell you today that my class rose to the challenge.  Masters Regional Academy was truly successful in training leaders in our class.  If you haven’t heard my class had the lamest senior week in the history of Masters, but that’s the bad thing about leaders: they all have opinions.  We were pulled in so many directions we ended up going to Alicia’s house, and AMF Langs for bowling, but even when there was a 12 against 2 count for one particular location, our class did not override anyone in choosing where to spend senior week.  Our class has leaders- not Lords.  

Our class could not have undergone the editing process under better teachers than those we have had at Masters.  The teachers took the time to befriends us, learn about us- figure us out. These teachers deeply cared about all of us becoming the men and women of God we are called to be.  Men like Doctor Ryan, Mr. Sierakowski, and Pastor Marco’s challenges to us formed us into the thinking Christians we are today, and Mrs Petrarca’s and Mrs Okons constant grace and encouragement gave us the sense that we can and we will make it through anything.  

Because of these teachers and this school- Stephanie, Amy, and Deanna are unstoppable. Liz, Cait, and Charissa spread their love and joy.  Shadlee and Eric are forever loyal and always hardworking.  Alicia, and Dede are following big dreams. Mike, Britt, and Victoria are leaders who completely give of themselves, and As for me- I passed math (We made it Mrs P!)

The writing of my class’s speech has happened over the last four years, and today you are looking at the final draft.  Seniors, this is it.  The ideas, the process, the hurt, the love, the self discovery, the choices all come down to this.  In 9^th grade you were just a bunch of ideas, but four years later you have become- a masterpiece.  There is a famous quote that states that “You are the only Bible that a lost world may ever read.”  As we move up and on I pray that everyone that reads your life also reads ours, and whoever reads our lives sees the beautiful story of Jesus Christ within it.

 

 

Interjection

Never read “Blue Like Jazz” immediately following a conference.  It is just too much to handle. By the way- that book made my head spin, and i loved every minute of it.