ROHS Graduation Speech: Enxhi Merpeza

Royal Oak High School senior and class president Enxhi Merpeza delivered the following speech at Thursday's commencement:

13 years of schooling, all for this day right here, all for a little folder with a little piece of paper that says you finally graduated from high school. Doesn’t that sound inspiring? Probably not. But may I remind you that your journeys all began way back in pre-K and grade school where you were all still very intimidated by adults, incoherent on how to make friends, or even what kinds of friends you wanted to make, and all you wanted to do then was grow up because grown ups obviously could do so much more and their lives just seemed so much more gleeful. In the course of 13 years you’ve managed to discover a lot on your own, but most of your time has been spent in school with your family of classmates and from them you’ve learned how to mature, hurdled over growing pains, shaped your personality, influenced others, and come to terms with reality. And from the adults in your lives you’ve constantly been told “What I would give to be young again” and “you kids have it so easy nowadays, back in the day we didn’t even know what the internet was or a computer.” To all the adults in the audience, I think we’re still learning that life lesson about growing up and I’m sure we will one day quote you unto future generations.

As kindergarteners we thought the world was a magical place filled with endless possibilities, Disney princesses weren’t just fairytales, Spiderman and Batman were real, and if we really wanted to fly we most certainly could, hey we were invincible. We didn’t know the difference between weird and cool, in fact I’m pretty sure everything that may seem weird to us now was way cool in the perspective of a fresh eyed grade schooler. By the time we got to fifth grade we felt superior knowing we were the head honchos of the other little kids, and we felt even sweeter knowing we’d be middle schoolers the following year. Middle School came around half of us went to Keller and the other half Addams but all of us instantly became too cool to endure, trying to impress classmates who were strangers to us, hoping to capture some new hearts with our gawky and awkward personalities. We changed our style up a million times, possibly dyed our hair, girls and even some guys tried to apply make up, we made new best friends, and we all attempted to build up our reputations… all to impress others. As eighth graders we looked up to the high schoolers almost as much as we were intimidated by them. We were very defensive of the glares people would give us when we hung out with our friends in public, how dare they think we were obnoxious and needed to get over ourselves, hadn’t anyone informed them that we were the ones who ran the middle school? Duh! We felt no need to impress anyone…except for maybe the high schoolers.

But the first day we set foot into that grandiose building of Royal Oak High we got lost a bunch, stepped into the wrong class too many times and embarrassed ourselves in front of upperclassmen with our naïve and concerned looks of Freshman Friday threats. Oh boy oh boy, all that time in middle school and we just couldn’t wait to get into high school and become Knights and Oaks. I’ll be the first to admit, I was a little frustrated to hear that the two schools were merging, but now I say thank God they did, if it wasn’t for that we would have never had the pleasure of meeting all the wildly talented and weirdly fascinating people we associate with. It worked out pretty great for us, we watched the adjustment between Kimball and Dondero take place through those first couple years and by the time we got to our senior year we were no longer Knights and Oaks…we were truly Ravens.

High school was a whole new phase of our lives, these past 4 years have been the most influential in shaping our outlooks on life, and many of us have strengthened our relationships and made lifelong friends. We joined clubs and sports and fell into the routine of waking up way too early coming to school at 7:20 am, though thankfully they changed it to 8:00 am, attending class til 2:57, taking a 30 minute break and then immersing yourself into umpteens of activities at once until 10 at night when you’d get home too tired to do homework, staying up til 2 in the morning, half your times spent on some kind of social network, the other half scrambling to get caught up with all the homework and projects you’d been procrastinating for the past 2 weeks. We lived for Friday nights when we could finally relax and put off homework until Sunday evening but even then the stress never seemed to cease with our weekend jobs and sports and activities. We walked into this high school scared of who we were suppose to emulate and which path we were suppose to follow, four years later we’ve tamed down, realized that we no longer need to impress anyone but ourselves to be happy and we’ve come to the conclusion that we can’t quite fly off buildings and land on our feet, we’re not that invincible any longer. Growing up, getting wiser, and reality can seem like such a dream crusher sometimes because we can no longer live in our fantasy world we have built up for ourselves. But never neglect your dreams and passions, because reality is much too bland without a little imagination. When all else fails to put a smile on your face, surely your childhood visions and ways of thinking are bound to do the trick. As hard as our loved ones have tried to keep us from growing up and believing in others naively, they say experience is the best of teachers. It’s true that we now have to step out into the world, blind to what lies forth but open minded to what doors are opened for us along the path.

If I’ve learned anything in my short 17 years, it’s all been because of you here today, all the teachers, friends, loved ones and family, because of you I’ve learned nothing in life goes according to plan. You can plan for hours, weeks and months but nothing in life follows an exact point of interest. Why, it’d be so boring and mundane to think that you can plan your life exactly, so for those of you excited for the tarot card readings tonight at the all night party…don’t get too hung up over what those cards predict, good or bad, happy or sad…life just happens. Some of you may be terrified because you have yet to realize what it is in this world that would make you happy to wake up each morning put on your scrubs, your tennis shoes, your heels, your business attire, or your tie. I’m in the same boat, but everyone tells me I’ve got time to figure out what I can do to change the world around me. Each and every one of you has a purpose in this world, you may not figure out what it is that makes your heart beat just yet, but you’ve got time. Never settle for a career that makes you millions but makes you miserable because I think the Beatles sang it best “money can’t buy me love”…or happiness for that matter. Stick to your beliefs, and then change them up, open up your heart to others and if they break it, keep on loving them but allow others in and give them your love as well, make life goals but always write them down in pencil, when life makes you crumble don’t be afraid to cry out loud, to send out an SOS out for a loved one nearby and dwell in a sea of heart to hearts. May you smile and laugh every day of your lives.

No matter where your life journeys continue to take you remember that this piece of paper you have received today permits you to keep on with your continuous journey of learning, growing, and loving. Remember to always keep the people who have left a mark in your lives in your hearts, remind them constantly that you love them, and thank them for always giving you their everything to make you a better person. Class of 2011, you are an incredible and astounding group of individuals, go out there and change the world keep on educating yourselves and those around you, and when you come back to the class reunions I hope to hear some earth shaking stories.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.” –Dr. Seuss

'11…you surely got it done, Congratulations and hats off to you all.