Motivation from a Valedictorian Speech

I know that most of us missed out on a graduation speech this year, but here is one to inspire:

I entered this year with so many expectations for what it was going to look like. Our senior year! The pinnacle of our K-12 education, a time to have fun, go to prom, to cultivate the relationships with friends that we had built for the last three years. It was a time to create memories that last a lifetime. It was all looking up, but then it all changed. I have spent the last four years working towards this goal. To try and be the best student I possibly could with an excess of activities, experiences, and a high GPA. I was so used to evaluating myself based on achievement, and then, overnight everything came to a halt. When you get stuck in the routine of constantly performing, you lose track of how to live without it, and coming to that realization was hard. I struggled with motivation, with negativity, and frankly, it was hard to even imagine that the 2020 graduation would even happen.

But there is light at the end of every tunnel, and soon I came to realize that uncertainty is a powerful gift. It’s funny how the things we cherish most so readily blend into our day to day. A hug, a smile, bumping into a friend at a coffee shop, things that we all take for granted disappear in the chaos of everyday life. Sometimes it takes a tragedy, or a pandemic, in this case, to allow us to change for the better.

Nature has given us this once in a lifetime chance to heal. To heal the earth. We’re seeing endangered species’ numbers rise, pollution going down, and air quality improving. Life is thriving in this tragedy. For the first time in a long time, ducks have returned to the waters of Venice, crime rates are on the decline, and the earth is beginning to heal itself. We also have the opportunity to heal ourselves, to disconnect from all the things that we could live without, and appreciate the things that we couldn’t. As the world moves so fast, we can lose track of our place in it, but these days, we have the wonderful opportunity, no, the obligation to evaluate our lives, determining the things that make us, us. Dr. Suess once said, “There’s no one youer, than you.” We have so much propensity for greatness. Our creativity, our personality, and our relationships define who we are in this world. In our day to day, we are marginalized, treated as just another gear in the large-scale societal system. But humanity is more than just a sum of its parts. Together we are strong, but not because of numbers, because each and every one of us is unique beyond measure and handcrafted for greatness.

Today, we have the freedom to challenge the status quo, to let go of material objects, and enhance our wellness by focusing on what matters most in life, centering ourselves around family, hope, spirit, faith, kindness, and connection. When you’re on your deathbed, I guarantee you that you’re not going to be fretting over that one college activity or assignment you missed or an average GPA, no you’ll be thinking to yourself how worthwhile it was to spend that time with those you love and you’ll remember that it’s not what you spent your time doing, you’ll remember who you spent it with. So, don’t let these beautifully unique relationships slip through your fingers because of the business of life. You have to choose happiness and the key to happiness is contentment. Life is fleeting and every day we have to commit ourselves to serve others, to love, to kindness, to generosity, and most of all, hope. Hope is the miracle of the human spirit. It is our resilience to keep pushing through and the willingness to see the light despite being surrounded by darkness. The human spirit is a powerful thing; it can be tested, beaten down, or broken, but it can never be destroyed. We have the power to take control and lift our spirits and that power is through perspective. These uncertain times are teaching us something—they make us realize that there is more good in the world than evil, that it takes the same amount of energy to build up than tear down, that there is more love than hate, that when crisis strikes, we all will rise up and support one another, and that no matter what language we speak or where we come from, there is more similarity between us than difference. Sometimes it takes the most abrasive form of change to make us capture a perspective that lifts us up and reveals to us what we previously failed to see. The challenges we are facing are not meant to break us down or burden our spirits, but provide a wonderful opportunity for growth and change. The thing about a trial is that it doesn’t tell you that it’s changing you for the better, no, it feels quite the opposite. It feels uncomfortable, painful, and even distressing at times, but at the end of it all, you will look back at this moment with the skills you gained and the lessons you learned. With that foresight, you will be grateful for the challenge. Sometimes you must hurt in order to know, fall in order to grow, lose in order to gain because life’s greatest lessons are learned through pain.

It’s hard to be optimistic, to focus on the good things in life. Actually, a recent scientific study proved that it physically takes the mind longer to transition from thinking negatively to thinking positively (within a varying degree of three to five seconds longer.) Thankfully, our brains can be rewired. It takes work to change, but the flicker of light you see will soon grow into an expansive fire. If you can’t right now think of something good about your life, you need to look in the mirror a little harder and realize the miracle of human life and existence. We all have a purpose here. For everyone, it’s a little different. Yes, plans can change, life goals can crumble because we live in a place that’s as fluctuating as the tide. But what is unchangeable, what is tangible, is the resilience of the human spirit. Build your house on a firm foundation. Look to spirituality for guidance, connect with yourself, your family, and nourish your relationships, choose positivity in everything you do, and always, above everything else, love. Love is the most powerful force that keeps us alive. Without love, we are only an empty shell of our potential. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” We have the power to change our perspective and positively influence other people’s lives in dramatic ways. We have the power to light up the hearts of the broken and make the sick well, and that power is love. Love is a universal language, we all know when we see it and cry out when we don’t have it. Love is the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see, and we all have it within us.

For the first time in years, we have the global opportunity to choose how we live, what we value, and what our perspective will be going forward. My hope is not that we will return to normal. No, my hope is much greater than that. My hope is that we seize this opportunity to better ourselves and cherish the things that really matter in life. Hope, faith, love, and the human spirit will drive us forward. So, as you graduate today and move on with your future plans, focus on the things that are so easily dismissed. Use the skills and the lessons you’ve learned to bring hope to the world, rebuild, and become the best version of yourselves. We have been given a gift, so let’s use it.

May God bless the graduating class of 2020. Thank you.