A Message For Graduates (And Maybe Others)

Editor’s note: Jed Davis, Prairie Grove High School principal, gave this address to his 2021 seniors at their graduation ceremony May 15. It is presented here for our readers.

Never stop learning. I know as you sit here today, some of you are probably thinking, I am so glad I never have to go to school again. And that may be true for some of you. Some of you might be done with formal education. Some of you may have another 10 or 15 years of school left. But whatever the case is for you, never stop learning. No matter what you pursue when you leave here, always be learning.

Read books, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, talk with someone older than you that has been through it before; just be ready because you never know when someone or something is about to teach you your most valuable lesson.

Some of the best ideas and lessons I have learned over the years have come while riding a bike, being in a classroom, or sitting around a campfire.

Here are a few of those lessons that I would like to leave with all of you today.

1. Develop and work on your communication skills because once you open your mouth or post on social media, you tell the world who you are. Be careful with that message.

2. When you go for a walk with someone, one of two things happens: either that person sets their pace to you, or you adjust your pace to them. So I would ask you the question: Who’s setting the pace in your life? You or someone else?

3. This next chapter in your life will be, for most of you, the first time in your life really living outside of your parents and family. Be aware of who you surround yourself with and who your friends are. For better or worse, show me your friends and I will tell you where you are going and I will show you your future.

4. Everyone has goals. Both winners and losers have goals. But they don’t have the same systems to accomplish them. Don’t just tell me your goal, tell me how you are going to accomplish it. The people that reach their goals are the ones that have a system in place.

5. Don’t listen to the outsiders or the noise on social media. If you would not take advice from someone, do not listen to their criticism.

6. If information could change people, everyone would be skinny, rich and happy. It is not lack of information that keeps people from being successful, it is a lack of effort and execution. Go out there every day and do it. You’ll never be ready for every situation. You will never have the perfect situation. Perfection is the enemy. The more you do something, the better you will become. Just get out there and do it.

7. You are writing your life story one decision at a time. All the decisions you make add up to what is going on in your life. Every time you make a decision, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it is your fault, and sometimes it isn’t. A bad decision or what you thought was a good decision but ended up being a bad one, doesn’t have to be your entire story. It can be a chapter in your book, or it can be a section of a chapter in your book, but it doesn’t have to be the end.

8. I am sure all of you have hopes and dreams, so I will ask you this: Do your habits match your hopes and dreams? You say you want to accomplish something, but if someone watched what you did every day, would they know what your hopes and dreams are?

People have asked me the question, “How successful is this senior class?” I thought this was a weird question at first. Because how do we define success for you

“There are going to be days where you feel like you can conquer the world, and there will be days where just getting out of bed will be a victory.”

Jed Davis

Prairie Grove High School Principal

seniors? Is it the amount of scholarship money you received? Is it how many sporting events you won this year? Is it your ACT scores or your GPA?

I told them that getting here today was a success, but that it is just the beginning. I won’t know your true success for a while. I won’t know for many years. I actually won’t know until you come back and visit and let us know what you are doing. What kind of husband or wife did you become? What kind of mom or dad are you? Are you pillars in your communities? Are you doing things for others?

When you give me the answers to those questions, I will be able to tell them how successful you are.

The thing about being successful though, is that failure is a part of it. Don’t fear failure. It’s going to happen. Learn from it. Grow from it. And move on. So much of your success will be based on your ability to do the small things consistently. I think about losing or gaining weight. No one meal or one day changes a person’s body. It is about making the right decision one small decision at a time. Over and over. That is how you find success.

I saved what I think are the two most important lessons for last.

In your life there are going to be times when you are wrong and when you make mistakes. I have always found that life is better when you admit it, apologize for it and move forward.

The last thing I would tell you is this — There are going to be good days and there are going to be bad days. There are going to be days where you feel like you can conquer the world, and there will be days where just getting out of bed will be a victory.

But every day when you wake up and your feet hit the floor, fight the good fight.

If you look down, you will find a crayon at your feet.

I don’t know if you remember being in kindergarten and bringing your school supplies to school, but I remember it like yesterday. I had my box of crayons, I can still smell those crayons. I opened them and I was fired up to start coloring and drawing. I was so happy about my box of crayons. Then I noticed the person beside me and she had that box of 164 crayons, it had all the colors, it even had the sharpener in the side. It was sweet. I was jealous of her crayons. Suddenly my crayons didn’t seem as good. Don’t let someone else’s stuff take joy from you. Celebrate them. Celebrate what they have. Just because someone has something that is different from you, doesn’t mean what you have is less. Share in their success.

The other thing that I would say about the crayon is that by itself it is awesome. It’s got a color that can make a great picture, but it’s just one color. Pictures look better when they’ve got all the colors involved. You can be awesome, but it’s better when we do it as a group. Remember, no one is successful by themselves, take other people with you.