Graduation Speech: Ill Never Forget :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

During the years I've been at Best College, I have learned what it means to be an adult and make choices that determine my future. I began attending this college as when I was a senior at County High School. My graduating class was just over 100 students, and consisted of students predominately like myself. My first class here introduced me to a more diverse group of students and I had the opportunity to study with people of all ages and ethnicities. As I became involved with the college's art and literary magazine and the student newspaper, I had additional opportunities to work with people from around the world. It's difficult to comprehend how much we can learn from each other until we are given that opportunity, and I know that I was given that opportunity here at Best College. Now, after two years of hard work, I am ready to move on. Although I'm excited about the next chapter in my life, I will never forget the tremendous people I've met at Best College. Many of the students I've met and the teachers I've had the privilege to learn from, have made significant impacts on my life. Stanley Kunitz wrote a poem called The Layers, of which I would like to share an excerpt with you: I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray. When I look behind, as I am compelled to look before I can gather strength to proceed on my journey, I see the milestones dwindling toward the horizon and the slow fires trailing from the abandoned camp-sites, over which scavenger angels wheel on heavy wings. In a rising wind the manic dust of my friends, those who fell along the way, bitterly stings my face. Yet I turn, I turn, exulting somewhat, with my will intact to go wherever I need to go, and every stone on the road precious to me. In my darkest night, when the moon was covered and I roamed through wreckage, a nimbus-clouded voice directed me: "Live in the layers, not on the litter." Though I lack the art to decipher it, no doubt the next chapter in my book of transformations