Renegades of the Time and Age

Text of the speech that made his mother cry:
I would like to begin by thanking everyone for the nomination as class speaker. It is a great honor to speak for our class here at graduation, and I truly appreciate it. Well, here we are. Its 2008 and graduation is finally here. Didn't this milestone always seem like a distant date that would never actually come to pass? It seems like only yesterday we were wandering through our first day of kindergarten with anything but graduation on our minds. Time plods on, and soon we made the transition from Pigeon to Whitehall. In the blink of an eye elementary school was done and we once again moved to another place, this time the big scary High School building. And now, its 2008 and graduation has hit us like a sledgehammer. We have finally run out of places to go together. This is probably the last time all of us will truly be in one place together, after tonight we must go our own ways. So the question on the minds of most of us is "now what?" Where do we go from here? As Martin Luther King Jr. said, "In order to answer the question 'where do we go from here?' we must first honestly answer the question, where are we now?" At this moment we are on the threshold of a great unknown. None of us know what the future has in store for us. But what we do know, is ourselves. So who are we?
Going back, I'm sure you can ask any of our teachers what we are like and they will tell you, our class is full of renegades. If seems as if every year back to kindergarten it was the same old thing: "I've never had a class this loud!" Here we see an undeniable quality to our class, something that each of us possess to some extent: never quite submitting to authority. Now this isn't always a bad thing, so long as it is used correctly. It has been those people that have dared to stand up to authority who have changed history: Martin Luther, Thomas Jefferson, Guy Fawkes, Che Guevara, and Gandhi, to name a few. Standing up for their beliefs is their legacy. Their methods differ significantly, however. While Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament, Gandhi advocated a non-violent revolution. Our class is similar, I'm not saying that we have people plotting to blow things up; instead I am suggesting everyone rebels in their own way. Like every class, we have our cliques. There are the sports stars, the video gamers, the slackers, the students, the gear-heads, the artists, and too many more to name. The diversity our class demonstrates is really quite shocking, but even more startling is how well we get along. While we don't always agree with each other, there have never been any big showdowns, no trips to the Thunder Dome. We seemed to have always resolved our differences and, for the most part, cooperated. We have always shared what we had and helped each other along, binding us close together. A common experience, a bond, has been forged that nothing will break. This is why I am sure that no matter how far we physically go from each other, we will always be together in spirit.
Before I get too sappy and make myself cry, I'll move on. So where are we right now? Well for those of our less observant companions, we are at the graduation ceremony. More importantly, however, we are on the edge of the future. Starting now, we shape the future, not the older generations. We control our destiny, not anyone else. As we sit in this gym, we have more power than we might think. Whether we like it or not, this power will be ours very soon. Today's "brilliant" leadership won't be around forever, and soon our generation will inherit the mess that is the world. If that doesn't scare you, I don't know what will.
So where do we go now? What will we do with this power? That is up to each of us individually. It isn't simply a question of how we will use it, but if we will use it. So I hope we don't squander the opportunity to bring about change. Don't settle for things you don't agree with. We never have before, have we? We must continue to do what we do best, question. If we just sit down now and take what we are given without so much as a word of protest, our leaders will be able to get away with anything. We are very lucky to live when we do. Just look at all the rights we have, universal suffrage, equal rights, free speech, and more. But how do you think we got these rights? They weren't thrown to us like candy in a parade; people had to fight for what they believed was right. We must now do the same. Winston Churchill may have said it best when he said "What is the use of living if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?" Think of those words often, because they are just as true today as they were half a century ago. Now it is our turn to pick up the fight.

Category:

Education

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