Salutatorian thanks teachers in grad speech
Recognizing teachers and their influence, salutatorian Adam Rogers, especially thanked Malinda Stewart and Michael Harrod.
“Welcome everyone and thank you for coming. Families I know you’re all very proud of your students and you should be! Everybody’s been working hard to get here. Behind all the ceremony is a celebration of accomplishment. This is a big day that required a lot of effort for the people here and I hope everybody appreciates that.
“While we celebrate though it’s important to remember everyone who helped keep us going along the way. A lot of us have even had the same teachers for three years. I’d like to take a moment to recognize a few of the teachers who have made a lasting impact on me. Mrs. Stewart, infamous for her homework assignments but also giving up her free time to help anyone who needs it whether it be Saturdays or early mornings and guaranteeing we succeed. Also Coach Harrod who can make any lecture interesting. He’s retiring this year but he said he’d stick with our class till we graduate and he did. I’d like to thank all our teachers for helping to get us here today.
“Through high school one of the most important things I’ve learned is to never give up. One example of this is right before a marching band competition, things were looking down. Our practice runs weren’t going as well as we knew they should be. But we also knew that we had it in us to have a great performance. Even though it was looking bleak we didn’t abandon hope, we still gave it our all on the field and turned it around. Though going into it we were stressed and worried we didn’t decide it was too late. We put in the effort and had a great performance. This went for classes this year too. A couple times this year I was doing less than stellar in a couple classes, as Mr. Carreira is well aware of. But I never decided it was too late to turn things around and put in the effort to save my grades. This doesn’t just go for school. As we all prepare to continue life outside of this building, diligence and ambition can help in all walks of life. Whether it be college classes or a career it’s important to keep trying and putting in effort until the end.
“I know it got difficult to keep giving it our all towards the end of this semester as excitement to be done grew. Though as ready as some of us are to leave this school behind, I know we’ll all think fondly of the memories we made here. To our families and teachers, thank you all for supporting us and guiding us along the way. We’ve all gone through things that have changed and developed us and now we’re getting ready for a new chapter. Again, thank you all for coming and I wish everyone here the best of luck in whatever path the future holds for them.”