Speech...
A couple people had asked to read my speech, and I don't remember who they were, so I'm going to hope it was someone who reads this cause I'm gonna post it here...
Susan Sontag once said, “At least the past is safe- though we didn’t know it at the time. We know it now because it’s in the past, because we have survived.”
Many of us were extremely nervous when we walked through the doors of Palmyra High School in September 2001. It was our first day of high school and we didn’t know what to expect. Our heads were exploding with questions. “What are the teachers like?” “Will we be overwhelmed with work?” “Are the upperclassmen going to torture us?” “Am I going to get along with the kids from the other towns?” For the first time in our lives, we were in classes with students from other schools. We were no longer surrounded by only the students we had gone to school with since kindergarten.
These questions stuck in our minds throughout the first day of school and for a few weeks after that as we adjusted to our lives as high school students. Many of us took on the challenge of balancing school work with sports and other extracurricular activities. This decision placed even more questions in our heads. “Will I make the team?” “If I do, will I be able to balance my school work and this sport?”
As you can tell by now, we were very apprehensive freshmen with numerous questions in our heads. Now we realize that we shouldn’t have been as nervous as we were. Everything turned out okay. We learned that we would have some of the best teachers we have ever known. Many of them have even helped us through difficult times along the way. Although we were given a lot of work, more work than we thought we could handle in some cases, we got it all done eventually. Sometimes it took long nights, which became early mornings, to finish English projects that we all put off to the last minute. But when we came into school the next morning, barely awake and bags under our eyes, we turned in our work. Although we hated staying up all night, we now realize that we have learned from our past mistakes.
We soon came to realize that the upperclassmen’s main goal in life was not to torture the underclassmen. In fact, many of them took us under their wings and helped us through our first year of high school. In the years to follow, they became some of our best friends, and so did the students from the other schools. Palmyra students became friends with Riverton students. Riverton students became friends with Beverley students. Before long, almost everyone was getting along well. Some of us found lifelong friends in students that came from another town.
We all came to find out that it was quite possible to balance a sport or other type of extracurricular activity with school work. It was very rare that someone was cut from a team, and in many cases we made varsity teams as freshmen. We found a second family in our teammates.
Sooner than we though it would, our freshman year came to a close. We were no longer scared like we were when the year had started. We had adjusted to high school just in time for summer.
Sophomore year came, and we were no longer the “little kids.” We weren’t upperclassmen yet, but we definitely felt more comfortable walking into school on that September day than we did on the one before. Most of us used this year as a year to continue adjusting to high school life.
Junior year came and we had many new issues to worry about, which meant we had many new questions popping into our heads. We were in charge of planning the prom. Every time we made a decision, we had to question ourselves because we didn’t know if the seniors would like it or not. After a lot of hard work and many changes to our original decisions, we put on a successful prom that the seniors enjoyed.
Junior year was also the year that we had to take HSPA’s. This alone brought along many questions. “Are they hard?” “What if I don’t pass?” The HSPA’s weren’t the only standardized test we had to worry about junior year. This was the year that most of us took the SAT’s for the first time. We knew how important these tests were, which made us even more nervous than we already were. We couldn’t help but ask ourselves, “What happens if I don’t do well on this test?” We were all pretty stressed out junior year.
All the stress and hard work paid off in the long run though. The majority of us passed our HSPA’s with ease, and we achieved fairly decent scores on the SAT’s. We came to find out that we had done a lot of worrying for nothing.
This September came and, finally, it was time for our senior year. This was the year that we had been waiting for since we were freshmen. Although we wanted to enjoy the experience while we could, once again, numerous questions popped into our heads. The majority of them had to do with college. “Do I want to go to a big school or a small school?” “How far away do I want to go?” “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?” While all we wanted to think about was Disneyworld, prom, and all the other exciting events of senior year, our parents reminded us that there were decisions to be made. By late winter, we had finished filling out applications, and some of us were even starting to receive acceptance letters. By spring, the majority of us had chosen a school. We finished out our senior year, enjoying everything it had to offer.
We’re still working on the “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” part. But rest assured, a few years from now, when we have completed college, found a job, and made a plan for the years to come, we’ll be able to look back and see that we had nothing to be afraid of. We will have realized that the past is safe.
Susan Sontag once said, “At least the past is safe- though we didn’t know it at the time. We know it now because it’s in the past, because we have survived.”
Many of us were extremely nervous when we walked through the doors of Palmyra High School in September 2001. It was our first day of high school and we didn’t know what to expect. Our heads were exploding with questions. “What are the teachers like?” “Will we be overwhelmed with work?” “Are the upperclassmen going to torture us?” “Am I going to get along with the kids from the other towns?” For the first time in our lives, we were in classes with students from other schools. We were no longer surrounded by only the students we had gone to school with since kindergarten.
These questions stuck in our minds throughout the first day of school and for a few weeks after that as we adjusted to our lives as high school students. Many of us took on the challenge of balancing school work with sports and other extracurricular activities. This decision placed even more questions in our heads. “Will I make the team?” “If I do, will I be able to balance my school work and this sport?”
As you can tell by now, we were very apprehensive freshmen with numerous questions in our heads. Now we realize that we shouldn’t have been as nervous as we were. Everything turned out okay. We learned that we would have some of the best teachers we have ever known. Many of them have even helped us through difficult times along the way. Although we were given a lot of work, more work than we thought we could handle in some cases, we got it all done eventually. Sometimes it took long nights, which became early mornings, to finish English projects that we all put off to the last minute. But when we came into school the next morning, barely awake and bags under our eyes, we turned in our work. Although we hated staying up all night, we now realize that we have learned from our past mistakes.
We soon came to realize that the upperclassmen’s main goal in life was not to torture the underclassmen. In fact, many of them took us under their wings and helped us through our first year of high school. In the years to follow, they became some of our best friends, and so did the students from the other schools. Palmyra students became friends with Riverton students. Riverton students became friends with Beverley students. Before long, almost everyone was getting along well. Some of us found lifelong friends in students that came from another town.
We all came to find out that it was quite possible to balance a sport or other type of extracurricular activity with school work. It was very rare that someone was cut from a team, and in many cases we made varsity teams as freshmen. We found a second family in our teammates.
Sooner than we though it would, our freshman year came to a close. We were no longer scared like we were when the year had started. We had adjusted to high school just in time for summer.
Sophomore year came, and we were no longer the “little kids.” We weren’t upperclassmen yet, but we definitely felt more comfortable walking into school on that September day than we did on the one before. Most of us used this year as a year to continue adjusting to high school life.
Junior year came and we had many new issues to worry about, which meant we had many new questions popping into our heads. We were in charge of planning the prom. Every time we made a decision, we had to question ourselves because we didn’t know if the seniors would like it or not. After a lot of hard work and many changes to our original decisions, we put on a successful prom that the seniors enjoyed.
Junior year was also the year that we had to take HSPA’s. This alone brought along many questions. “Are they hard?” “What if I don’t pass?” The HSPA’s weren’t the only standardized test we had to worry about junior year. This was the year that most of us took the SAT’s for the first time. We knew how important these tests were, which made us even more nervous than we already were. We couldn’t help but ask ourselves, “What happens if I don’t do well on this test?” We were all pretty stressed out junior year.
All the stress and hard work paid off in the long run though. The majority of us passed our HSPA’s with ease, and we achieved fairly decent scores on the SAT’s. We came to find out that we had done a lot of worrying for nothing.
This September came and, finally, it was time for our senior year. This was the year that we had been waiting for since we were freshmen. Although we wanted to enjoy the experience while we could, once again, numerous questions popped into our heads. The majority of them had to do with college. “Do I want to go to a big school or a small school?” “How far away do I want to go?” “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?” While all we wanted to think about was Disneyworld, prom, and all the other exciting events of senior year, our parents reminded us that there were decisions to be made. By late winter, we had finished filling out applications, and some of us were even starting to receive acceptance letters. By spring, the majority of us had chosen a school. We finished out our senior year, enjoying everything it had to offer.
We’re still working on the “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” part. But rest assured, a few years from now, when we have completed college, found a job, and made a plan for the years to come, we’ll be able to look back and see that we had nothing to be afraid of. We will have realized that the past is safe.