Class of 2006

In honor of the many graduations coming up I did a little digging.  Some of you may not know this, but when I was in high school I oh so humbly ran the school.  (I hope you sense the sarcasm- I was not so humble)  I was one of the graduation speakers for Chariton High School, I know, cool, right?  (again with the sarcasm).  


I guess I fooled enough of my classmates into believing they would want to hear advice from me.  By the way, whoever thought that a high schooler was wise enough at that point to give advice was both a genius and an idiot.  I had know idea what I was talking about, but just thinking that I did gave me some maturity and confidence.  


I dug up my speech and I decided to share it with you guys, enjoy!


Class of 2006:

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. 

We sit here as the graduating class of 2006 that a pretty cool feeling huh?

I want to start off by saying that a great author once wrote

“Everyone has a tendency to condemn where they came from, but heaven can be found in unlikely places.”  

I wanted all of you to hear that because everyone of us make fun of this small town, but this community is tremendous.  It’s full of caring loving families and without the support and encouragement of all of you guys none of us would be here now.  

So class of 2006 can we give your family and your friends your teachers and coaches a round of applause.  You know they got you this far.  

Fear: anxiety caused by real or possible danger.

Fear, standing in front of 1000 plus people reading a graduation speech.

Fear is something that all of us are bound to have, some of us fear that.

Fear, that is what almost everyone sitting down here feels right now.

Fear about the future, fear about choices, fear of being held back, fear of obstacles, fear of failing, fear of tripping when you come up here to get your diploma.  Fear. 

Fear is a funny thing it is something that we are afraid of, weird huh?  We shy away of opportunities because we are afraid.  We pass up amazing chances because “What if?” what if I try and miss.

A lot of us have made friendships throughout highschool, memories that will last forever.  We are afraid of loosing those we love to be around, afraid we won’t stay in touch.  We are terrified of a change.

But, if there is anything that I have learned through all the sports that I have participated in, I learned that you can never say “I wish I woulda” well that’s not true, you can say it but you always feel so crummy when you do, because you don’t ever get a chance to do it again.  

You never have the opportunity to relive this exact moment, this second in time.  The past is set in stone you can’t go back and change anything. So you cannot allow yourself to say I wish I woulda.

Most of you might have noticed that I put up a sign in the media center about two weeks ago.  It asked the question ... what is your greatest fear?  The reason I put that up was to get you thinking although, seniorities kicked in early for some of you so you didn’t get much of that done.  But at any rate it was to get you thinking of you greatest fear.  

Fear of not making it to this day, fear of heights, fear of snakes, fear of not being loved by everyone.  When we let go of our fears we have accomplished something that most people will never accomplish.  We have gotten rid of the biggest obstacle in our life.  So many times people chalk their lives up to fear.  They say I could have done this, but I was afraid, I wanted to be a doctor, but I was afraid it would take to long, I was going to do something crazy, but I couldn’t because I was to afraid.  

No one knows how long our lives will be, god forbid something could happen when you walk out of this building today.  So keep in mind the fact that you only get to live once, and you can never say I wish I woulda.  

The reality is that the only thing to fear is fear itself.  And you only get one shot to make your life the best it can be, don’t let fear stand in the way of that.  

It was said that there are two ways to get into a pool.  You can standoffishly dip a toe in if you are afraid just to test the water.  But when you are not afraid you jump in with both feet.  That is how you have to live your life.

Now I want to leave you with a quote from Coach Carter. I’m sure many of you have heard this, and hope fully many of you will hear it again.  These words are words to live by:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond all measure.  It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.  Your playing small does not serve the world, there is nothing enlightening about shrinking yourself so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  We were all meant to shine as children do.  It’s not just in some of us it’s in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others.