<p>OK so i wrote this in about 1.5 hours, and i actually dont like it that much. But i would love some suggestions!
A little background: I go to a tiny Classical Christian School that has been through a lot this year: expulsions, negative press, etc.
And i am in a tiny senior class of 11. so yeah. the speech has to be about 4-6 minutes long. Let me know what you think!
Good evening everyone, graduates, faculty, family, and guests, and welcome to our graduation. I have the privilege of saying a few words tonight, both to my fellow classmates, and to you as a whole. And anyone who knows how fast I speak will understand how short a speech it truly will be.
My fellow graduates, I am so happy to be standing here today with you. Im thrilled that we have made it to this point, and that we are ready to move onto the next stage of our lives. College is luxury that few can afford, and we should be incredibly grateful that we all get to attend an institute of higher learning, no matter where it may be.<br>
As we leave high school behind, there will be parts about it that we will miss, and parts that we cannot wait to forget. No one can deny that this has been a tough year for Covenant, and an especially tough year for our senior class. With our moment in the national spotlight came division and hurt that time will have to heal. High school in itself has been a trial at times for our class, being a small group squished between two larger grades. We have often taken the blunt blows of rescheduling and schedules that were not perhaps how we wanted them to be. As a small class, we have been more affected by the departures of classmates, but we have been blessed with the addition of new ones throughout the years. We have been through so much, but we cannot ignore how it has built our character, preparing us for tough times.
Even this year, our senior year, has been tough. Remember the summer before freshman year when we blissfully thought that we would be coasting through our last days? I guess the plans to have 15 study halls a week did not work out. I know that the college process has been especially rough, rougher than we thought it would be. This year, we have learned some of our limits, whether they are physical, emotional, social, financial, or intellectual. Some of us have had our egos bruised, for better or for worse. Some of us have been through more than we even know or could imagine. We have cried, laughed, smiled, screamed, and shook off everything, trying to work our way through it. But the most important thing is that we have survived. Those times when the world seemed upside down and nothing was going right have passed.<br>
But what can we learn from our struggles? What can we take out of these times that will better our lives as we face new challenges that we will overcome in college?
I believe the heart of our struggles lie in where our hope is. Romans 12:12 says that we should be ...rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. As Christians, we are supposed to place our hope in Christ and the salvation that he brings us to save us from the penalty of our sin. But in this world, we are given the opportunities to place our hope in everything but Christ. We can hope in fashion, good looks, popularity, athletic ability, connections, humor, and intelligence, but all of these things will eventually fail us. As you grow older, style changes, good looks fade, and athletic ability leaves with old age. Popularity, connections and humor will be lost as you move from group to group. And there will always be someone who is smarter or can work harder than you. None of these hopes can give you the solid foundation that we all need in our lives. The false sense of security that confidence in these attributes bring will only cause further turmoil in our lives when they break under the weight of the struggles in this world.<br>
As we go into college, we must be wary of placing our hope in anything but Christ. This does not mean neglecting our studies, our hobbies or our friends as completely unimportant, but instead, we need to make Christ our number one priority. Romans 5:1-5 states that "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." In Christ, we can survive the struggles that will face us in college, in the emotional arena with new romances, on the athletic fields as we try to maintain a healthy lifestyle, or in the classrooms as we face new material and a new depth we have not seen before.
My classmates, I love you all dearly. And I can only hope that each and every one of you will place your hope in Christ, pursuing Him above all others when we go our separate ways. We all may have different goals in this life, pursuing various fields of study, but remember that as everything in this world is temporary, and so as 2nd Corinthians 4:18 says, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Hope in the salvation of Christ is the breastplate in the armor of God, and it will enable us to overcome whatever faces us in the future, outside the bubble of our community. We will always be united as brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter how far from each other we may travel.<br>
Self-reliance is good to a point. Each of us is moving into an independent lifestyle, where some of us may only be coming home once or twice a year. We have to be able to rely on ourselves. But we cannot do it all alone. Friends are people to depend on, to cherish. Friendships are relationships of give and take, of compromise and support that both people must be actively involved in. But most of all, reliance on God to see us through any challenges is the most important thing. Let Him help you overcome any addictions, relationship problems, or any other issues that you face. He is the one we need to rely on to get through and enjoy the next four years of our lives, and all the years that will come after college. Im sure that we have all heard speech 100 times, and that it is pretty trite by now. But it is still true. If He helped us make it this far through Covenant, He can carry us through anything.</p>
<p>bump…help please.
i just got back from rehearsal and they asked me if i had it done yet! AH i need to finalize this…</p>
<p>i like it .</p>
<p>better than mine id leave it be</p>
<p>I didn’t read it because it lacks discernible paragraphs.</p>
<p>it’s either top 10 or last. sigh. being in a class of 11 must really be interesting for class rank</p>
<p>sorry the paragraphs got messed up when i cut and pasted from word.</p>
<p>we only rank val and sal. and yeah, top ten percent in my class sux because we are in texas and top ten percent is a huge deal.</p>
<p>I didn’t read it because I can’t read things unless they’re in paragraphs, BUT are you the school that crushed some public school in basketball and there was such a huge deal made about it? Lolololol 1000000-0 or something. That was awesome.</p>
<p>Wow your graduation ceremony must be really small. lol mine is tomorrow in Aloha Stadium (couple thousand people are gonna show up probably). I have to say my val speech in 20 hoursss =[</p>
<p>yes that would be my school, the 100-0 school. well, we rent out a church that has a huge worship center and we pack it. there will be 500-600 people there.</p>