Vernonia's voice., June 06, 2013, Page 14, Image 13

14
june6
VHS CLASS OF 2013
2013
Farewell
I have been dreading and anticipating
doing this speech for months. But as I’m
standing here looking around, it kind of just
clicked, I am graduating today, so I guess I
really don’t have anything to lose, whether I
bomb this speech or not. Building up to this
occasion there has been a lot of reminiscing
done by myself and my classmates, realizing
there are a lot of people who got us here and
we have learned a lot of lessons along the way.
First off I’d like to thank all of you that are here
today, you’ve watched us grow, you’ve taught
us your own lessons and now you’re here to
support us during this monumental moment.
I have been attending school in
Vernonia since my first day of preschool. That
day was that beginning of many new lessons
I, along with my classmates, would learn.
Fortunately back then life was a lot simpler.
For instance, at 5 I thought my life’s profession
was to work at Walmart. I still remember
my first day of kindergarten, Rowan Cheney
walked up to me and merely asked me “Will
you be my friend?” I said “Yes.” It was that
easy. From that first encounter I learned you
don’t need to overdo things, in the end it’s the
small things that matter, people will remember
you by how you treated them. In kindergarten,
thanks to Mrs. Nice, my class learned you get
what you get and you don’t throw a fit.
We also learned: treat others the way
you want to be treated. We sometimes
still have to remind ourselves of this
lesson today.
The next thing we knew we
were in middle school. In 7 th grade
from Mr. Aubin we learned to always
have flood insurance, even if it seems
ridiculous at the time and in Mrs.
Ward’s 8 th grade health class the girls
learned one of my personal favorite lessons,
which was we could use our bra as a purse.
In high school we started to learn
lessons from our peers vs. from our teachers.
We leaned leaving banana peels in the hallway
for someone to slip on apparently only works in
cartoons. We learned the best way to get over
scholarship anxiety, take note underclassmen,
is to lie on the floor in the library and vent to
Dana Hyde. But of course I’d still like to thank
our teachers for the lessons they have shown
us. By the time of graduation Mr. Baker taught
us how to laugh at ourselves even if no one else
thinks it’s funny and Mr. Brown taught us how
to take a proper time out.
Finally I’d like to share with everyone
lessons I’ve learned from my family. These
very lessons have helped mold me into the
person I am today. The first is to never sacrifice
your beliefs or who you are. Second, if high
school is the best four years of your life you’ve
peaked way too early. Finally, sisters don’t
only come from across the house, but they come
from across the world. I know every person
in our class has people they want to thank, so
my advice to them is do it before it’s too late,
our class knows first-hand life brings many
changes. I mean for Pete’s sake our freshman
year we were in modulars and now we are in
this spectacular new school.
And now my advice to all of you in the
audience, take lots of pictures of us getting our
diplomas. Thank you!
Samantha Wallace
Co-Valedictorian