2009 WCPSS Valedictorians' Graduation Speeches
June 17, 2009 - Several of the 2009 WCPSS Valedictorians shared the comments they made at graduation with us. Here's what they had to say:
Spoon Jung - Broughton High
James Sauls, now there’s a man. Just look at him. Can you see him over there somewhere? James Sauls is an exemplary student. He’s honest and hardworking. He treats his friends right, and he’s a gentleman to girls. James Sauls, what a swell guy. Upstanding citizens like him are the kinds of people we’ll see becoming civil engineers, building septic systems for children’s playgrounds, or designing public parks like Fletcher and Pullen. People like James Sauls are the moral fibers of our great nation and society, upholding the virtuous virtues of virtuosity. I am proud to say that I know James Sauls.
Indeed, the great halls of Broughton are filled with many James Sauls. Not literally, but figuratively speaking. Metaphorically. They—you all are the purveyors of knowledge and truth, of goodness and light, forever in combat with evil and darkness. Yes, the darkness of misinformation and lies, trying to confuddle the masses with their trickery.
There is one particular lie that is currently being perpetrated that I must direct your attentions toward. This lie has been spread around by fast food chains and multinational corporations, and is designed to obfuscate the truth and sucker people into buying illegitimate food. You see it on commercials every so often when the marketing teams desperately needed a cheap, quick fix for stale and boring menus. Ladies and Gentlemen, I speak of the myth of Asian salads.
Throwing a few mandarin orange pieces into lettuce does not an Asian salad make. In fact, as far as I can tell, Asian people don’t eat salads. No, they just don’t. It’s not in the diet. Asian people just don’t have salads. There wasn’t a moment in history when there was some Asian epiphany that went, “Oh my goodness, we can throw some vegetables together and call this a salad! And to distinguish our salad from that of any other potential salads in the world, we shall throw in some mandarin oranges! Because we obviously call it mandarin oranges, just in case we forgot we were in Asia. Can’t be just oranges.” No, there is no such thing as Asian salads where all you have to do is add in some mandarin oranges or sweet and sour glaze to make it an “Asian Sensation.” Oh boy! Slightly exotic food!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is this kind of misinformation that I see everywhere in the world. Freetriplescore.com, make $5000 in one week working from home, North Dakota being a real state, and other such mistruths that we must fight against. That is why I urge all the excellent students here to go out into the world and fight for what’s right. Fight against Asian salads, ye noble seekers of truth, because if not you all, who else will? The world is already saturated with old ideas and fragments of truth scattered amongst individual perceptions and unyielding ideologies, and perhaps we’ve been cast into the same mold. The pattern repeats because the people creating it are the same, and we’ve a small window of chance to try something new before we’re too rigid. It’s ok to learn from the past, but we shouldn’t make it our own. That’s not its purpose. We’re supposed to learn from it. We stay the same because we didn’t learn, we memorized.
To change, that’s what the future is for. It’s to change the present.
We’ve gotten the proper training. Improvement has always been brought about by the new generations. Even if it doesn’t seem like something needs changing, and sometimes it turns out bad, our progress forward has generally been a positive one. I know I can’t live without Google.
Perhaps all this sounds like empty words. Maybe it is. Maybe we’ll end up perfectly happy being part of a well-functioning society. To be honest, I know I’ll be fine living a normal life with a nice job. But, I know I’m glad there are people who made the iPhone. I’m glad people work for NASA. I’m glad for those working on the edge. Maybe you’ll be one of them.
Although I cannot individually commend all graduating seniors for their deeds, these are some persons I personally know that I can commend. Of most numerous are those off to the Kingdom of Carolina, including fine citizens such as Alecia Westphalen, Elizabeth Monson, Megan Gress, Carolyn Chesson, Amelia Lorenzo, Arielle Ocampo, Alisha Robinson, and more; Megan Fitzgerald at Baylor University, Allison Calder at College of Charleston, [Molly Crenshaw at Davidson,] Cathy Newcomer, David Lassiter, Quinn Johnson, and Jay Singer at Appalachian, Jeff Shirley and Hannah Waddell at Wake Forest, Michelle Lacks at Columbia, [Staci Hooker at Virginia Tech,] Natalia Ospina, Thomas Stokes and Rob Lampe at State, [Nick Johnston at Emerson College,] our Salutatorian at some college in Vermont (I kid, Middlebury) and Matt Mansueti in the faraway country of Florida at FSU. I wish I knew everyone, but I don’t. So, to everyone: best of luck in your future endeavors, wherever you end up. It has been a privilege learning for 4 years with all you fine individuals, who have made Broughton not just where my inner child went to die a little every day, but also someplace interesting and special. Seriously though, it’s been great.
And in fact, I’d like to thank just a few of the teachers who have made that experience all the more better. Mrs. Lee, the best math teacher I’ve ever had. Mrs. Roberts, who is leaving us, sadly, drilled into me the foundations of physics. Mr. Jenkins, who turned me into a history person. Mr. Quinn… well, quarter papers. Thanks. Mr. Elsaesser, I thoroughly enjoyed your class. Mr. Rothenberg, simply amazing. Mrs. White, thanks for helping me understand grammar, and sorry for mumbling. Mr. Corsetti, making electromagnetic waves interesting, I think. Mr. Martin, wish I could’ve taken IB Film. Mr. Kaulfuss, I don’t think I’ll ever have classes like ToK again. Ms. Howell, sorry for the invasions. Mr. Brooks, a great guy. Dr. Cherry, the schedule master. Thank you all for making Broughton excellent.
But, like I said, it is up to all you students moving forward into the future to make the world a better place. It’s important that we realize that we can change the world with action, and to not forget we can always act. I believe in you. There are plenty of talented folks here. So I believe in you. Become great people.
I still think it was a bad idea letting me speak and I’m sure there’s a lot of regret floating around right now. But thanks for listening those of you that aren’t asleep. Hope you enjoyed the show, and as I promised, bum chiki wow wow. That is all.
James Dickmann - Fuquay Varina High
Good day friends and family, teachers and faculty, and especially fellow students. Before I begin I would like to warn you all, I’m not good at giving speeches in front of a crowd. So bear with me through any blunders, gaffes, and fainting spells. Up until the day before I had to turn this speech in, I had no idea what I was going to say. I considered pulling out a copy of the U.S. Constitution and using a few quotes from that grand document. It worked for me the last time I had to give a speech in English, but then I realized it wasn’t quite pertinent to these proceedings. Then I very briefly considered seeing how many quotes from Spock I could throw in a five minute period with a phrase or two in Klingon added for good measure. Don’t worry, I quickly discarded that idea. Instead, I’m just going to ramble on about these past four years we have shared together and the future.
Before I begin my musings, I would like to thank a few people. FVHS has some of the best teachers around. They have spent these past four years putting up with us students, dealing with our teenage drama, excuses to explain why a homework assignment was late, and other issues. Through all this they managed to teach us something! Because of the devotion of our teachers we are prepared for whatever lies ahead of us. So I would like to thank these wonderful men and women who make it their career to help young people such as ourselves prepare for life. I would also like to thank the administration and staff of Fuquay High. Without you the school would not be able to function. None of the behind the scenes work that is necessary for the teachers to teach and the students to learn would ever be done. Thank you for all your hard work in making our school function.
We have finally made it after four years of staying up late studying for tests, writing papers, and sitting through long lectures that never seemed to end. It all paid off in the end.
All the work done in high school, everything we’ve accomplished, has forged us into young men and women ready to face whatever the world has to throw at us. Some of us will continue our education in college while others will enter immediately into the workforce. Whatever the case, we, the class of 2009, are ready to go out and make our mark upon the world. With all of the problems the planet is suffering from today, from global warming to Somali pirates, we have the potential to make a difference as national leaders, inventors, scientists, and philanthropists if we are willing to take these issues on.
To quote General George S. Patton, “Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.”
If we are willing to put forth the effort, any one of us can achieve greatness in spite of all resistance faced. As we move on to college or a job, everyone here who is graduating will face new challenges. Challenges that may be more difficult than anything we’ve faced before. We are prepared to face these difficulties. These past four years have been about more than learning, they have been training to overcome all obstacles. To quote another famous figure from World War II, Winston Churchill, “Never, never, never give up.” To succeed is to persevere no matter the difficulty.
Here we stand at the end of one stage of our lives and the beginning of another. Whatever the future holds, we will always have this feat. We can always remember walking across this stage and knowing we did it. We graduated. After four years, high school is finally over. This is not merely the end of one chapter of life, it is the beginning of another. Whatever you do, do your best. Do not settle for anything less than greatness. We are the class of 2009, we can, and will, succeed at overcoming whatever challenges we choose to face.
Yik Shing Tung - Leesville Road High
Welcome. Many people believe I studied for countless hours every day like a nerd and believe I have no life, but I do in fact have a life; I hang out with friends and play basketball, even though I am not good at it, go on Facebook and chat and play video games. I studied for a period of time and tried not to put stress on myself. I asked questions immediately when I did not understand the problem. Most importantly, I sometimes needed help from others; for example, I needed my friends and teachers to proofread my papers, including this speech, many times before I could turn them in. Many of my classmates scored higher grades than I did, can run faster than I can, and speak better English than I speak. Everyone has different abilities and strengths and this is how we build our community. We work together as a group, for no one can succeed by himself.
Congratulations. Congratulations not only to us, the graduates, for achieving our best and excellence in academics, service, and athletics, both in and out of school, but also congratulations to our teachers, our friends, and our families. Our success is your success, for you have been here when we needed help, encouraged us to achieve our best, and had faith in us when we hesitated. We, the Class of 2009, thank you for all your support.
We have accomplished so much and traveled a long way to be here today. We stand, as if before many roads of a journey we are about to take, each road different from another and leading in different directions as we have different dreams and goals with countless important decisions to make. A Chinese quotation by蔣經國 (pause), “天下沒有走不通的路，沒有克服不了的困難，沒有打不敗的敵人。” The quotation means that there is no such thing as a dead end on the road, unsolvable problems or undefeatable enemies. We all must do, as Robert Frost suggested, take the road less traveled. As we journey along, we must set aside our fears and fight for our dreams. To overcome obstacles and choose our road, we must uphold our sense of righteousness and justice. When there is a dead end, we cannot turn back, but instead, we should make a new path toward our goals, no matter how long it takes. Our time has finally arrived. We have grown up. We must seize our dreams; we must seize our future and make every effort towards excellence.
We join together now, in faith and inspiration, all of us sharing our common legacy - All of us, the Pride of Leesville Road High School. All of us, the Class of 2009. May We Go Forth and Prevail. I will see you again on the other side of excellence.
Thank you and Godspeed.
Melissa Lantzer - Wake Forest/Rolesville High
Good evening graduates, family, friends, faculty and dignitaries. In the wonderful words of Dr. Seuss “Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away!”
I made a goal my freshman year to be here tonight delivering this speech to you, and with hard work and a lot of luck, here I am! During the next minute, I hope to pass on some advice that I’ve gathered that may be beneficial to all of us in our future endeavors.
First, none of us would be sitting here if it weren’t for the people around us. On a personal level, I would like to thank my mom and dad, my sister Jennifer and all of my neighbors (particularly Joe and Jodi Madden) for inspiring me. I’d also like to thank my friends and boyfriend Will for making my high school years unforgettable, and my teachers for sharing their knowledge with me every day, especially Mrs. Norman & Mrs. Wojo. Each of you have your own unique group of people you can credit for your accomplishments, so never forget to thank them!
Second, don’t forget where you came from! Many of us are going to college out of state next year, but never forget your years as a cougar. Our senior class is remarkable. We won three conference championships in football, and our girls won earthball and powderpuff all four years. We are the last class to graduate from Wake Forest-Rolesville as it is today & we made history by being part of the America that elected the first African American president. Learn from everything you have experienced so far and cherish it.
Lastly, seize the day!
Mark Twain said “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” Make sure you take advantage of every single opportunity that is presented. The answer is automatically no if the question is never asked. Everything has something to offer, so don’t miss out. Don’t be afraid to ask the question.
From this point forward, your life is in your own hands more than anyone else’s. Whatever is next for you, is up to you!
Congratulations class of 2009. We did it. Thank you.
-wcpss-