Enjoy.
Graduations are funny things. Throughout my 17 years of living, this is what I have observed about the peculiar thing we like to call graduating:
Some kids have kindergarten graduation. Not that I’ve ever seen one or been invited to one or heard of one taking place – but they happen a lot on TV. I suppose the purpose for such graduations is to celebrate a child’s first big accomplishment in life. After all, they probably learned how to tie their shoes, count to 100, and recite their address and phone number all in the past year. I figure kindergarten graduation is also an attempt to convince the kids that school is not that lame, since they’ll be doing it for the next 12 years of their lives. Parties and cake and wearing nice dresses tend to make unexciting things seem a little more hopeful.
There’s DARE graduation – which is kind of a sorry attempt at mixing a celebration of finishing elementary school with a hope that these kids will never touch drugs or alcohol in their lives. The thing is: all fifth graders are gung ho about being drug free. None of those kids are like…well this DARE thing is a nice idea, but I’m really just not ready to make the commitment in my life to not do drugs. So it turns into a pretty inspirational ceremony. And that’s fifth grade.
Then there’s 8th grade graduation. To be quite honest, I’m not really sure what the point of that one is. At my eight grade graduation we did our hair up all nice and then wore jeans and our 8th grade t-shirts to sit on the floor in the gym and eat pizza off of paper plates while listening to crappy music. And then a bunch of people took our pictures, we shook the principals hand, got a piece of paper saying we survived Jr. High, and then we went outside and released balloons into the open sky, as if graduating 8th grade was some sort of super freeing, sentimental experience. I never really understood it. Like I said, graduations are funny things.
I guess this leaves us with high school graduation. It’s a lot harder to define something when you’re currently experiencing it. But, from my observations over the last 17 years, high school graduation seems to be the most significant of the graduations. Because, hey, for the last 13 years of my life I’ve been working toward this one goal. And now it’s here. I did it, right? I learned my ABC’s and I can find the square root of 144, I know that “I” comes before “e” except after “c”, and I know that the proper term is “Native American” not “Indian”.
I guess I’m not really sure what a graduation speech is supposed to consist of. I’ve never given one before. There are probably rules or guidelines or something. The problem is, most of the graduation speeches I’ve heard have been at public school, in which the valedictorian addresses his fellow classmates as if he’s got the whole world figured out, and encourages them to stay strong and pursue their dreams and never give up. And then he shares some school memories and quotes somebody who has something profound to say about growing up and moving on. I guess I could try to give you advice about life, but that would seem kind of out of place. You guys aren’t the ones graduating. You should be the ones giving me advice. You should all be up here telling me to follow my dreams. Yet somehow I got stuck with this speech giving thing. So I’m kind of just making it up as I go. I’m not going to follow any guidelines or rules. I’m not much for traditionalism, as you probably already know.
There’s something I would like to talk about. It’s something I’ve wanted to say for a long time, but I’ve never really had a platform to say it on. It doesn’t necessarily pertain to graduation a lot, but let’s act like it does. Because I don’t get the chance to make speeches a lot, so when else am I supposed to share the depths of my heart with a captive audience? So here it is: I love my family. Not like…”Yeah, love you too” empty words kind of stuff. Not like I love you because you raised me and fed and me and picked me up from school. I’m talkin’ for real for real. I Love my family. I don’t think I could possibly put into words how absolutely blessed I am to have the family I have. They are really way more than I could have ever asked for or deserved. I guess it is natural that the older we get, the more people we meet. And I’ve been noticing recently that the more people I meet, the more I realize how rare my family is. The normal family now…is pretty broken. And even the ones that are not broken do not communicate with each other well or inquire about each other’s lives or get involved in matters of the heart. The more people I meet, the more stories I hear – stories about how mom and dad yell at each other all the time, or about spending every other weekend with the other parent even though it’s a terribly hostile environment, stories about how my parents don’t care how late I get home or what I’m doing, my house is just the place I eat and sleep. This is normalcy. There are kids who have never sat down with their families and cried about the woes of life, or sat in the “hot seat” in the living room and been prayed for before a big event , or spent an evening playing clue and poker with their parents.. I listen to the stories and I don’t understand….why I got this family? I know God gave them to me for a reason. But sometimes I get to asking myself…why me? Maybe I’ll never know that. Or maybe it will all make sense someday. But either way, all I can do now is just be thankful. Maybe you guys don’t really understand. Maybe you’re thinking, “yeah yeah, typical obligatory thank you, I have the best family ever part of the speech.” But, see, you don’t understand. And I’m not here to brag about how awesome my life is and how everyone else got jipped. I just feel like it needs to be acknowledged. My parents need to be acknowledged. My siblings need to be acknowledged. Because more than anything else, they are the reason I am the person I am.
Mom and Dad,
Somehow, you’ve made parenting seem like a piece of cake. I don’t really understand how you did it – how you parented SO well. How do I say this without sounding like every other child who says this but doesn’t really mean it? You are the best parents I could have asked for. You are more than I could have asked for. I know one thing for sure, God gave you guys the gift of parenting. Your marriage is one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. There aren’t very many kids who can say without a doubt that their parents are madly in love with each other. But I can. You guys were meant for each other. The way you respect each other and love each other and communicate with each other is incredible. The way you always keep God at the center of your relationship is the best gift a child could be given. I could go on and on giving reasons why you guys have succeeded completely at being parents, but there are more people who must be addressed.
To my Siblings, Lindsey, Colin, and Megan,
You rock. I know we’re siblings and we’re not supposed to get along that well or whatever…but I’m really glad we do. I’m really glad my siblings are the best friends I’ve ever had. I’m glad we watch movies together and play Frisbee and make music incredible music videos. I’m glad we encourage each other and support each other spiritually as well. I am the most myself when I am around you guys. Growing up, I’ve watched each of you graduate. I’ve mixed the punch at your parties and picked up the balloons from hyvee. I’ve taken pictures of each of you with your graduation cake and made lists of who gave what gift, so that the proper thank you notes could be sent. It feels so surreal…standing up here, realizing that it is FINALLY my turn. It’s pretty crazy really. I’m the last one. We did it guys. We dun’ growed up. YOU did it, mom and dad. You win the prize. Best parents ever. Best teachers. Best confidants. Best encouragers. Best board game players. Best advice-givers. Best at making sure your kids know that they are loved. And just for the record….We love you too.
Now, I don’t want this to start sounding like I’m dying or something. That’s the problem with graduation speeches. I’m just graduating high school, I’m not getting married or accepting a promotion or sharing my death wishes. This is just another step in this crazy thing we call life. Another. Incredible. Step.
And how could I move even one step forward without acknowledging the entire reason I live, move and breathe. The entire reason that I have made it through every struggle I have had. The entire reason I get out of bed in the morning with a smile on my face, and the reason I have hope for the days to come. God. What would I be without him? I don’t even want to think about it. By some blessed miracle God found me around the age of twelve. That is when I gave my life to him. And quite honestly, I’ve been falling in love with him ever since. God is working. He is moving and breathing life into those who are empty. My life is because of God. And I don’t deserve any of it. But miraculously, I, the worst of sinners, have been made new by the saving grace of Jesus Christ. He is my redemption. He is my life and my joy and his plans are what I am clinging to for as long as I live.
I’m not stupid though. I know I will fall. I know life is a roller coaster. I know that even though today is good, tomorrow could very well be devastating. But there is something in me. SomeONE in me. Who gives me hope for the brighter days. My soul rejoices with a never-ending joy….because Jesus. Died. For me. And If that’s not worth rejoicing over, I don’t know what is.
Now this is the part of the speech where I tell you what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. Which is kind of funny, because I have no clue. I know I want to follow God. I know I’m planning on going to college and perhaps eventually getting married and maybe sometime in their acquiring some sort of job that pays money. How’s that for a 4-year plan? Here’s something solid. I’m going to Western Illinois University next year. Here’s something less solid. I’m majoring in Psychology and minoring in….art or theater or possibly sign language or journalism. Want to know how I feel about graduating? Excited. Scared. Joyful. Overwhelmed. Anxious. Hopeful. ….But I figure if I just stood up here and said, Yeah! Graduating is awesome and I’m super ready to jump right into this living on my own thing!!....I wouldn’t be able to fool any of you. I also figure there would be something slightly wrong if I wasn’t scared at all. After all…I’m just a kid. Apparently not for much longer. It seems that I have 17 more days of being able to say that. So I’ll be sure to say it again. I’m just a kid. I’m going to Africa this summer. I’m going to college next year. It’s super crazy, I think. But let’s do it. God is in control.
So there it is. A graduation speech. It was pretty all over the place, I know. But I had a lot of random things I wanted to address. I guess that’s what you get when you come to the graduation of a 17 year old-indie-hippie-slightly crazy-Jesus-loving-homeschooler. Just a lot of really real thoughts. And in all the other speeches I’ve heard, this is the part where they make their long list of thank you’s. First is family, then friends, teachers, and other random people who didn’t quite fit into a category. I think in the guidelines for all normal graduation speeches, that’s how it goes. But I believe it’s already been established that I’m not much for normalcy. And I can’t even begin to fathom trying to make a list of every person who deserves to be thanked in my life. So just know…that I have a thankful heart. I am utterly thankful to any and every person who has sacrificed any of their time to influence me and mold me into the person I am today. So this is how I’m gonna do it: If you’re here right now, thank you. Thank you for coming and listening to me ramble on. Thank you for actually caring enough to come. And if you’re here, there’s probably a good chance you deserve to be thanked for a mountain of other things too. So just take my word for it….I am truly thankful. And have some cake and punch in a few minutes to celebrate how thankful I am for your existence. And I do need to say this: Thank you, Mom, for teaching me. And anyone who is not here who deserves to be thanked….Well I guess they’ll never really know the difference anyway.
I’m going to close by introducing the next song. This is a song that I have had picked out since I was little as the song I wanted sung at my graduation. So I asked my cousin Angie, with her beautiful voice, to sing it for me. It is called Follow Love. Listen to the words. Because in this song, love doesn’t just mean love. God is love. This is a song about following God wherever he directs me. This is a song about jumping, taking a leap of faith, walking away from the safe, comfortable life I’ve always known….and following God….wherever his abundant Love leads me.
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