Maddie Way

Graduation Day

|A/N: I've decided to make flashbacks. Woo! This is set back in June, 2 years ago. I know there can only be one valedictorian but it's my story so 🙄💁🏻the flashbacks are to help with upcoming events so, be aware.|

"Guys, we need to find Josh and Tyler!" "Now, go!" "We don't have time to wait, you need to go get ready." "Stop! We're on in 5. Go, go, go!" "Tyler Robert Joseph, get back here." Tyler and Josh ran passed Austin, Adriana, and I to take their places next to us. Since we're all speaking as valedictorian, we had to stand together.

Our teachers all picked separate people as to who should be valedictorian, but they just couldn't chose one of us, so we all are. We just prepared a speech and spoke each section. I got the first and last, apparently I was the top choice.

"This year, the class of 2015, is graduating from Crosswell High in order to achieve what we've all become. Doctors, Lawyers, Artists, Musicians, Veterinarians, and so much more. My fellow students, we only arrived here four short years ago, and now it's already time to leave. How did it all go so fast? It seems like only yesterday that we were skinny little freshmen fighting with the locks on our lockers, trying to figure out where our next class was, and looking generally clueless to all the upper classmen. Now we are the upperclassmen, the seniors who stand here ready to graduate and move forward in the world. Yet at this seminal moment, we can't help looking back."

I looked out at all the parents, siblings, and other relatives but my family only catching my eyes. My parents blew me a kiss as I stepped back to let my fiancé take the next paragraph, giving him a little kiss on the cheek and standing next to my best friends.

"How do we measure the time we've spent in high school? In the beginning, we measured it in class periods, counting down the day to eventual freedom. As the days and weeks passed, we measured it in semesters, and later in years as we moved from being those clueless freshmen, to becoming sophisticated sophomores who thought they had it all figured out. By the time we reached our junior year, we were confident that we were prepared to take over for the graduating seniors, and we couldn't wait to "rule the school." Austin stepped back to let Tyler take the podium.

"No matter where we go or what we do, there are challenges ahead of us. What I'm asking from each of you, and from myself, is to meet those challenges straight on with your head held high and your heart wide open. It's not enough to simply try to get by in life. That doesn't move the world forward. You must try to excel in everything you do; strive for excellence in every task, large or small." Josh running up beside his boyfriend, to grab his hand and read the next paragraph.

"It has been a long four years, but here we are, ready to graduate. We worked hard to get to this point, but we didn't do it by ourselves. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the following people." Josh and Tyler walked hand in hand back to the little group we had.

Adriana walked up, wearing a big smile. "To our teachers, thank you for so unselfishly sharing you time, talent and knowledge with us. Yes, we know it was your job to do it, but what you did for us went beyond the call of duty. You took the time to explain assignments, sometimes repeatedly because we weren't paying attention. You allowed us to come to your classroom after school for extra help when you could have gone home to spend time with your family. You put in the effort to make lessons more interesting so we wouldn't just tune out. You demanded excellence from us whether or not we wanted to give it. You set the bar high and challenged us to live up to it." She waved to a few of our favorite teachers, and continued.

"To our parents, thank you for supporting us in more ways than it's possible to count. You dragged us out of bed each morning, made sure we were fed and clothed for school. You herded us out the door to the bus stop or drove us to school yourselves. You helped us with homework, paid our class fees, and listened to our complaints. You came to our plays, attended our sporting events, and chaperoned our dances. You commiserated over our daily dramas, but you tried to give us enough space to learn how to work things out for ourselves. These are just a few of the thousands of ways you've supported us on our journey.