SHS 2013 Graduation Address: 'Perseverance' by Grace McCann

When I was younger my dream was to be a singer. Not just any singer but a professional one. So in pursuit of this dream I joined special chorus and begged my mom for voice lessons. I should probably get something straight there is a reason you did not see me in the musicals at school, and my seventeen year old self standing in front of you today is perfectly aware that my singing voice isn’t just subpar, it’s extremely bad, but that fact was lost on my ten year old self. It was not, however, lost on my parents who despite the knowledge that my voice would not be what took me far in life allowed me to dream. Of course I eventually realized my lack of future in the music business, but looking back I know that my parent’s goal wasn’t to make me a better a singer. They may have avoided telling me the truth about my talent but in doing that they were fostering my ability to dream, and my ability to work hard for what I want in life. It has always been instilled in me that our hopes and aspirations will not be handed to us on a silver platter; we must endure to reach our dreams, and in order to endure we must never give up no matter how many hardships we are faced with.

Over the past year I have become more aware of the challenges we may encounter as we enter the next stages of our life. The countless hours spent on college visits, in the guidance office, on applications was all time spent deciding the right path to achieving our dreams. Despite the knowledge of what my goals for the future are I still feared the unknown, and I will admit I wondered whether I would be able to achieve those goals. The question “where will you be in ten years?” is one many of us have come across this year. At times it seemed less important than water wars, prom, the lively debates on our class facebook page regarding which senior prank to do, and dealing with 4th quarter senioritis, but it was always a question in the back of our brains, especially because it is no secret that our generation faces many trials in the future. It occurred to me that in our short 18 years of life we have witnessed true tragedy. Specifically this past year I learned of events that made me question how I will be able to succeed in a world with such evil. How can I get to where I want to be in life when we are surrounded by a struggling economy, war, and terrorism?

However what I was failing to see is that life will never be as easy as we want it to be, and the only way we can reach our goals is to persevere through all difficulties. I was shown this through people like Dr. Seuss who displayed tenacity and is inspiring in the way he reached for his dream. Dr. Seuss’ first book was rejected 27 times, and despite this he went on to write some of the most well known and successful books ever. It was Dr. Seuss who wrote that “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...” Dr. Seuss is telling us that we must be the ones to use our knowledge, we must be the ones to work hard, and we must be the ones to persist because we decide our fate; we decide whether or not we can achieve our dreams. If Dr. Seuss can be rejected 27 times and still do what he did I have the confidence that we are fully ready to take on the challenges of the future. Because the road to our dreams is not straight and flat it is curved and bumpy and when we reach a curve or hit a bump we must keep going. My certainty in our future success stems from the fact that our administrators, our teachers, and our parents have helped mold us into strong confident adults, who are prepared for what is to come.

And so as I stand in front of you now I can confidently tell you I no longer fear not being able to achieve my dream. When I was ten years old my goals for the future were extremely unrealistic, but that was never the point; what was more important was that my ten year old self was never going to let anything stop her from achieving what she wanted. And now armed with new dreams I must take up that same attitude. It is finally our time to go out into the world and show them what we are made of and the only thing that can stop us is the fear that we can be stopped. It is true that we must navigate a long and winding road to our dreams but there is no doubt we will reach them.