Speech

I thought, since the title of my blog is Hope Itself, that I should post my valedictorian speech on the subject of Hope. So, here it is.

Hope. A simple, four-letter word. But what is it? What does it mean? "Hope is the thing with feathers," writes Emily Dickenson. Merriam Webster calls hope the expectation of fufillment. I say that hope is a choice. A choice to stand up each day and move towards a goal. To improve upon our weaknesses and grow stronger. Hope is not an intangable ideal but rather a definitive action. Failure to take this action is failure to believe in the future. That future will be difficult, and life will have challenges, but we have all been equiped with the tools to surmount those obstacles, stand on our own two feet, and hope. High school is the best place to learn about hope because high school only has one goal. It is not to learn mathematics, or English, or science, or languages. High school is to prepare for the future. We are taught to form our own thoughts and opinions and we learn to become our own people, people with their own dreams and aspirations. I, for one, have decided to follow my dreams and hope in my future. And let me tell you, that future is bright, because we, today's students, are the future. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the graduating class of 2011.