Graduation Speech: What Lies Ahead :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

I cried on my 18th Birthday. I cried because to me it signified that my childhood was over -- That I would never be able to relive some of the bulkyest moments of my life. I echo that day after school I was talking to one of my near friends, Betty Lou, and I mentioned to her how sad it was that we would all soon be leaving County HIgh. Betty smiled and looked at me and said, But there is so much more in investment trust for us ahead.Last October I was sitting in Mr. Foolers British lit class and he had us read this metrical composition by Louis MacNieceBirds flitting in and out of the barnBring back an Anglo-Saxon storyThe great wooden hall with the long fires d profess the c demean,Their feet in the rushes their hands wild the meat.Suddenly high above them they notice a swallow enterfrom the black storm and zigzag over their headsThen out at one time more into the unknown nightAnd that, someone remarks is the life of man.As that poem had compared life to that of the flight of a swallow that enters a room, stays suddenly and leaves, our teacher wanted each of us students to come up with their own analogy What Life Is LikeLife is Like a flower, which sprouts, and blooms, and lastly withers with age.Life is Like a candle, which sparks, flickers briefly, then fades.Life is a kindred(p) a box of chocolates you never know what youre going to get.Life is like a poker game, each person is dealt different circumstances and we have to make the most of what we have.Life is like the sun, which rises, keeps moving constantly and eventually sets on each new life.And as I tried to arrive at an analogy to lives that all of us have led and the paths we are to the highest degree to embark on, I could not find a metaphor that accurately depicts all that has happened to us and all that will.There is no way to hood together the feelings of the first time you rode your bicycle without your father holding onto the finagle bars, with the time you brought home an A on th e essay you spent legion(predicate) sleepless nights perfecting. The embarrassment you felt when you fell down at recess in a mud puddle and your mom had to bring you groovy clothes to change into and the lesson you learned when you set your binder on the summit of your car, forgot about it, and drove off only to see your papers straightaway all over the road in the rear view mirror.