San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Bandera High School
Valedictorians’ speeches are intended to sum up a shared experience, distill the aspirations of a graduating class and maybe get a laugh or two. That’s true whether they are delivered virtually, to an audience limited by social distancing measures or, as
Good evening, class of 2021. I stand here today as your valedictorian, but as Sir Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is because I have stood upon the shoulders of giants.”
Before I begin this evening, I would like to thank my parents for shaping me to become the man that I am today; my sister, for always pushing me to possess a greater appreciation of others; my grandparents, for providing an incomparable love; the rest of my family, who have always been there; my teachers and mentors, who have instilled in me a passion for higher learning; and my good friends, who have been there in times of trouble and success.
Each and every one of you has been “a giant upon which I have stood” and given me the ability to stand here today as the Bandera High School Class of 2021 valedictorian.
Class of 2021, I stand here amongst our achievement; we stand here amongst our achievement. In one hour or less, all of us will be given a diploma, with each one having the same exact words inscribed on its surface. Our diplomas, in all practicality, will be the same, and with them, we will be able to step away from this school, this school district, and this era of our lives, each possessing the chance to become something greater. Society defines greatness as “being above average in all ways, being successful despite the normality that ranges around one.”
Society’s version of greatness is the standard on which all of us, presumably, have viewed greatness for the last 18 or so years of our lives. This is how we see greatness: a quantifiable standard that all of us are encouraged to embrace.
However, I digress. I am unable to wrap my mind around the ideology that greatness is quantifiable. I cannot perceive a reality where our class is defined by society’s version of greatness. Our class has transcended beyond standards set for us and encompassed a greatness that has yet to be found in much of this world. Class of 2021, we are truly something special, and I believe that we will change the world.
But before I elaborate any further, let me tell the story of the class of 2021 through both my eyes and my classmates. It truly is a unique story, and I don’t believe that this valedictory address would be complete without it.
Freshman year began abruptly. Many of us were quickly thrown into the fast-paced realities of high school a month early. Through either Band Camp, two a days, or something of the sort, around one-third of our class enrolled in these programs unprepared for what was to come. Through the rigorous practice schedules and long hours, we quickly made friends and learned to grasp the most important traditions of Bandera High School. As the year progressed, we were introduced to new ideas in both extracurriculars and the classroom, broadening our social and academic horizons. We, again, were little freshmen, but this year served as an introduction for the reality which was yet to come and acted as a launching pad for our high school experience.
Sophomore year, we thought we had a hang of things; we thought that we knew what was going on. However, after receiving a new band director, a new athletic director, a new superintendent and a new set of high school rules, we were very wrong. Our world went from the uncomfortable reality of being freshman to the unknown world of being a sophomore in a school that was rapidly changing.
Furthermore, many friend groups and relationships began to change during this year, and the interpersonal relationships that each of us possessed began to evolve, becoming more mature with age like a fine wine. Yet, we were still underclassmen; we had yet to reach “high school maturity,” if there is such a thing. We were still going through the motions that all high school classes go through; we were no different, at this point, than any other class. We were a group of crusty sophomores with still no idea of what high school was supposed to be.
Junior year, this all changed. We found ourselves familiar with the school that we attended. We made varsity teams, carried on hallowed traditions, strengthened relationships, and acted as the “cool upperclassmen” that we had so admired in our previous years. We achieved a level of success in athletics, academics, the arts and other extracurricular activities, frankly, where other classes hadn’t. Our class was successful by the standards mentioned earlier in this speech; our class was successful by societal standards. We achieved greatness, and our community saw us as such. We had become the most successful class in the recent history of Bandera High School.
But things were soon to change, and, as we all know, our junior year was cut short in a tragic fashion. The greatness that we had worked so hard to achieve was overshadowed by the state of the world, and our schooling was sabotaged by a virus of malicious intent. In these few months, our class fell apart, and we forever lost our motivation to realize the societal greatness that we had previously held. We were no longer a class at Bandera High School, but rather a group of online students who had to adjust to distance learning and virtual assignments.
In spite of all of this, senior year started on time, albeit a little bit different than usual. Despite the countless quarantines and mask mandates, we managed to persist through to the end, winning district, regional, state and national championships along the way. We did rediscover our societal greatness, but it was changed. It was now tainted by the legacy of a malicious virus and scarred by the trauma of a worldwide pandemic. We made it, but we didn’t escape unscathed. At last, we had finished our high school career.
Class of 2021, that’s our story. We were a class that truly endured it all. We went through the fire and the flame, and we came out stronger than when we entered.
Our greatness was quantified through the first three years of our high school career, and we came out on top. We were deemed successful by societal standards, and we wholly embodied the societal idea of greatness. Yet I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the ideology that true greatness is quantifiable. I cannot perceive a reality where the class of 2021 is defined by society’s version of greatness.
We have come to embody what I believe to be true greatness, indefinable by numbers, statistics or graphs. True greatness is found in service to others, through interpersonal relationships, charitable giving, or just being there for your fellow man. I have observed through my last four years of high school, and especially in the last year, that our class has formed many different interpersonal bonds and relationships with one another, the community, and the world as a whole.
Through the trauma of a pandemic in which we were deprived of many of the standard staples of high school life, we have learned the value of relationships, service, devotion and love. We have come to a better understanding of these virtues than any other class we have encountered in our four-year journey at BHS. Although we did not wish for the circumstances that brought us these appreciations, we were made unique because of them. I struggle to use the word “blessed” to describe our situation, but I truly believe that we are blessed in the fact that we possess these such important qualities of appreciation.
Class of 2021, as I begin to close this speech, I ask you to carry these appreciations into the next stages of your life. I ask that you cherish the bonds that you have formed and the friendships that you have made in high school, while simultaneously looking to your future with a joyous anticipation of the unknown. As I stated earlier, we are uniquely inclined to change the world. Many other classes have been deemed great through the standards of society, but we are great through the standards of humanity. We have been through trial, tribulation and trauma, but, because of these, we have a special reverence for life that can be found nowhere else.
Class of 2021, our class is like no other. We are uniquely inclined to change the world. We have transcended beyond societal greatness to inhabit a true greatness that we are only beginning to understand.
Don’t forget your worth; don’t forget your true greatness.
Class of 2021, go forth in joy, be led by love, give in service, and live by devotion to your fellow man. Embody a greatness that cannot be bound by this world. Congratulations and God bless you, class of 2021, it has truly been an honor.