ROHS Graduation Speech: Bill LeAnnais

The following speech was delivered by Senior Class Officer Bill LeAnnis at Royal Oak High School graduation on Thursday:

As I look out at the sea of people in front of me, I remember us coming to high school four short years ago.  There we were, nervous little freshmen, well maybe I was not very little, but you know, in comparison to the future, little, anyways, there we were looking for the 3^rd floor, wondering what our futures would bring.  We came into an environment of totally different types of people than we have ever known before.  Of course we had the friends we already knew, but the new faces placed in the majority for sure.  As I have gone on through the past few years I seen all these people who once were only essentially hall mates come together as Ravens, sure we have a few stray crows in the mix, but all of us here are Ravens.     

I was planning on basing my speech on a book I know all of us read, The Alchemist, it is written by Khaled Hosseini. For those of you who don’t know it, my classmates and I were ALL assigned to read it in the summer coming into our junior year, even though it turned out to be sort of optional and there were tons of Cliff Notes and Spark Notes on it.  Anyways, I was going to base my speech on it because it focused on discovering our own personal legend: that is, what you have always wanted to accomplish in life from the moment you begin it. To quote, "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."  So basically every thing you do is meant to happen.  I feel as though we too have a personal legend and the people around us conspired to get us here.  It was a beautifully written book and I’m glad that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US read it.

However, despite its wonderful message, colorful setting, and intriguing plot I have found another medium of culture that I feel like explains our journey to this soccer complex, and the lives ahead of us, even better. I think we all know what I am talking about.

Rebbeca Black’s Friday. 

In the song she takes a journey from waking up at a painstakingly early seven AM (as many of us do).  She never wants a weekend to end (as many of us do).  At one point she even asks the question, “Do we kick it in the front seat, or sit in the back seat?”  This age old question fits right up there with, ‘what do I want to be when I grow up?’ and ‘where do I belong in this world?’.  I think it is important that as we go on to college, jobs, and families of our own we always look back fondly on our high school and the years we spent in it, and remember when we have asked ourselves these so important questions that we will soon find the answers to. 

The answers to these questions are found in the choices that we make every day and they are the ones that decide our destiny on this planet, we all made a decision to make it here today, and so we did.  I speak for all of us when I thank all the councilors, teachers, directors, coaches, friends, and family who helped us in making the decision to get here today.

But life cannot be all about planning every move perfectly, because life is like a slip and slide in the med skills hallway; that is, you NEVER know when it will end.  So you have to enjoy it while it lasts.

And lastly, tonight, as we graduate and start the next chapter of our lives, I wanted to let you all know that even though it is not a Friday night, we we we so excited.