The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Hello everyone, I would like to start off my speech by thanking you all for coming today to honor such an amazing class on this special day. I want to thank all of the teachers, staff, family, and friends that got us to where we are today. I don’t know where we would be without all of your support and guidance throughout the past four years of high school.
I knew coming into high school that I wanted to graduate at the top of my class. That being said, I started thinking about this speech 4 years ago, and just last week, I still had no idea what I was going to say. Do I talk about cheesy class memories, lessons learned, or getting to the point where I am today? Just like a test, when it’s an option, choose all of the above. It certainly wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be getting to this point. And the craziest 4 years a class has probably ever been through didn’t help either.
Freshman year we walked into this school as fresh meat with no clue what to expect. I still remember my first day of school in Spanish class when somebody pulled the chair out from somebody else and senora started yelling in Spanish at us. So this is what high school is going to be like, great.
Then sophomore year came along, but with it so did covid which followed in to most of the junior year.
By the time we got back to normal we only had one year left of high school.
Senior year, the year we are supposed to have everything figured out. Well that was not the case for me, in fact I’ve changed my major 3 times throughout the year.
But here we are now, ready to take on whatever future we decide after we walk across this stage and out of these doors. Now as many of you know, I’m a runner and running has taught me one of the most valuable lessons that I have learned throughout high school.
I think back to my freshman year of track when my relay team missed a state medal by 2 seconds and I was absolutely devastated. However, that pushed me mentally and I worked so much harder because I didn’t want to fall short again by 2 seconds. Then the next year we were able to compete, we got 6th place at the state track meet and I had never felt so great in my entire life when that medal was hung around my neck. Knowing that I had reached a long time goal felt so good, and I realized that my failure from freshman year was my greatest success. From that moment I realized that if I wanted to achieve something, I needed to give 110% effort into whatever I was doing so I would never fall short again. And this plays into where I am today, where we all are. My goal was graduating with a 4.0 and although it took a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and stress on my mental health, I stand here today with a 4 year goal achieved and I couldn’t be more proud of myself.
Now most of us had goals coming into high school and some were maybe to get good grades, succeed in sports, or maybe it was to just graduate and move on. But we all made it here, and we all should be proud of that. We have come so far as a class together and all the things we have accomplished. From state medals, regional championships, state scholars, winning class competitions, to convincing Mr. Willis into letting us take class quizzes. As we walk out of these doors today and start a new path in our lives, I hope we remember these moments and create new ones on the way.
Congrats class of 22, we did it!
Cole Kirkham