My name is Maddy Stern and I have had the pleasure of being the president of this class.<\/p>\n
In all my other speeches, I tried to avoid clich\u00e9s, attempted to create some new piece of writing. But graduation is a time for clich\u00e9s, the moment to reminisce in the most painfully stereotypical way possible. To listen to the songs that make you cry, and watch the movies you bonded over freshmen year, to look through old yearbooks and laugh at the horrible haircuts you had and think about all you\u2019ve gone through together.<\/p>\n
The theme of this speech is supposed to be transitions, about leaving Williston, about moving on. But honestly I can\u2019t even think about that, even though in less than 24 hours we will graduate. I want to enjoy the last clich\u00e9d moments of high school with you all.<\/p>\n
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What happens tomorrow is inevitable, we will cross the stage and receive our diplomas and then we will officially be graduates. But leaving Williston is not a single moment. It wasn\u2019t our last day of classes; it won\u2019t be when we move out of dorms or pull out of the DSL for the last time. We have been leaving Williston since Convocation\u2014and I\u2019m not talking about senioritis. I mean all those times we had a last at Williston and didn\u2019t notice: the last pre-class Dunkin\u2019 run, the last time we turned in our math homework, the last time we left for Thanksgiving break, the last time we met with advisors, college counselors, or clubs. Subconciously, we have begun transitioning to the next phase of our lives.<\/p>\n
Leaving a place or people isn\u2019t a single event, it is a series of moments. We\u2019ve been living our transition and now it\u2019s our time to embrace the culmination and everything that comes with it: the relief, the nostalgia, the tears, and late nights attempting to relive what we\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n
But the reality is we can\u2019t, and we shouldn\u2019t want to. As Karen Salmansohn said, \u201cWhat if I told you 10 years from now your life would be exactly the same? Would you be happy about this? Doubtful. So why are you afraid of change?\u201d Embrace the unknown and go forward confident that what lies ahead is exactly what we need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My name is Maddy Stern and I have had the pleasure of being the president of this class. In all my other speeches, I tried to avoid clich\u00e9s, attempted to create some new piece of writing. But graduation is a time for clich\u00e9s, the moment to reminisce in the most painfully stereotypical way possible. To … Continue reading Baccalaureate Remarks by Maddy Stern ’14<\/span>