Motivation. Hard work. Perseverance. Goal setting. Overcoming setbacks. These are some words I use when giving a high school graduation speech. Have I used these words before? Absolutely. I opened my speech at a high school in an unpopular southern state using those exact same words. I may have used them in a different order. Might have started with perseverance. Doesn’t matter. What state was it? I can’t legally say, but it rhymes with “Bill’s a hippie.”
Tonight, young people wearing oversized gowns, tonight is about you. Look around this multi purpose facility that we’re gathered in. It’s really just a gym, isn’t it? I see, what, six basketball goals folded up into the rafters? If you think about it, those goals in the rafters represent the goals you have for your life: the goals are high, you might not recognize them at first, and you have to crank a large handle to get them down. And what will help you crank those goals down so they’re within reach? The high school diploma you’ll receive tonight.
Okay. Take another look around this multi purpose facility that we’re gathered in. This time, look at your classmates. Look at your classmates looking at you. Can you see the accomplishments in their eyes? I can. And I’m standing up way up here on this makeshift stage. And why can I see them so clearly? Because I have exceptional eyesight. And where did I learn to have exceptional eyesight? In high school.
What’s that? You say you can’t learn to have exceptional eyesight? I did and you all did, too. Let me frame it this way. Going to high school was your blurry eyes that couldn’t see things that were far away. Learning facts in your classes was you eating carrots to make your eyes strong. Your exams in classes were exams for your brains and your eyes. The diploma you’re about to receive is you achieving perfect twenty twenty vision. Glasses and contact lenses? Band and choir.
As you head off to college or off into the workforce, you should remember this: cherish these memories. Remembering your high school memories will enable you to memorize these formative years in your life. As you choose to remember these memories, they’ll trigger your fertile brains to pull up more memories and you’ll be able to shape those older memories, which are now current memories, into new and future memories. Keep remembering the memories, and the memories will keep remembering you.
I’d like to conclude with an anecdote. Could we dim the lights? We can’t? How about a spotlight? Could I get a spotlight on me? No. Don’t go to the auditorium to get one. It’s fine. Imagine me with dramatic lighting and in a spotlight. Can you imagine it? Good.
Years ago, when I was a child, I had a plastic toy horse with wheels that I loved to ride on. I loved that toy horse so much, I stuck an American flag in the back of it, coming right out of a tiny hole in it’s plastic butt. I’m not sure why I did that. I guess I thought it looked cool. Anyhow. One day I took that horse to the top of the hill by the football stadium at the high school that I would one day attend. Mind you, this was the steep concrete hill that led up to the press box.
The marching band was practicing on the field below. As they went through their halftime show, I decided to ride my horse down the steep hill. With a scoot of my feet, I rolled down the hill. I was going fast. Very fast. The American flag flapped majestically against my horse’s butt. I managed to stop just before I hit the metal fence at the bottom of the hill. Do you know what happened next? The entire marching band stopped what they were doing and they all applauded for me. Years later, I was a member of that very marching band.
You may be asking yourself – why did I share that particular anecdote with you today? Because it was my story and it needed to be told. Now it’s time for you to tell your story. So grab your diploma, which represents your own toy horse with an American flag in it’s butt. Ride down the steep concrete hill, which represents your life after graduation. And don’t hit the fence, which represents an actual fence.
Thank you for having me here today. Congratulations on all your past and future accomplishments. Today you all put the I in diploma.
