Graduation Speech: Hayes Vs. Hayes, By Christopher Hayes

First, I must offer my gratitude to the students I have met over the years for sharing with me the burden that is high school and assisting me all the way. In high school, deadlines are tight, and the pressure to do well is overbearing, but something so simple as a friendship can go a long way in alleviating that stress.

Senior year rapidly is coming to an end, I’ve had the opportunity to see many of my friends come to the exciting moment in their life when they sign that dotted line and I was still waiting on my chance. My entire life I had dreamt of the day to finally committed to a college basketball team, this was my goal and it had to be my purpose in life. January 18, 2015 at 4:41 PM I got an exciting text from Truett-Mcconnell’s head coach, Matt Sanders, stating,” Good afternoon Claudia this is Coach Sanders from Truett-Mcconnell College, and I really feel like we need to begin the recruiting process with you! Sorry to bother you on a Sunday, but I just didn’t want to let time slip away! I look forward to hearing back from you!” Here was my chance!

Before I came to Baker Middle School, I attended elementary school in Laytonsville. I had a group of friends that consisted of five people, Olivia Fink, Olivia Pallas, Mason LeBlanc, Kody Johnson, and Stefan Jacob. The Olivia’s both attend this school alongside me, but sadly the other three attends a different school. I became friends with those three because we all had common interests in multiple categories such as cartoons and humor. I still keep in touch with them, but I know we aren’t as close as we used to be. With the Olivia’s we all became best friends in the first week of Kindergarten and we still have been by each other’s side since. We became friends because we all sat next to each other on our little chairs, and talked about anything

The start of my 9th grade year at Elsik High School was chill. Even though most of my Friends from Killough went to Taylor or Hasting High School. Elsik has a campus just for the incoming freshman. I wasn't that intimidated about being a freshman because all of the incoming freshman were together. Its was hard for me to make friends. So I decided to to join Elsik Might Ram Football. Since i Joined the football team I met NIck,Tim, Correa,Luke and others that played football. Playing football help maintain an A&B average. Elsik High school had two buildings. One building was just for the freshman and other building was for 10 through 12 graders. I couldn't wait to be in the other building Because the other building known as main campus at all

At the end of my first grade year, I moved away from the small, rural town near Vienna where I had lived since I was born. On my first day of school at Lincoln Elementary, I quickly made friends with two girls in my class named Pam and Kelly. Pam and Kelly introduced me to their group of friends that were all in our second grade class. For the rest of the school year, this group of friends was who I played on the playground with everyday and talked to in the classroom. After a great first year of school in Marion, the time came for my third grade year. Every year at Lincoln, there is a day that is close to the beginning of the school year where the students can come to the school to meet their new teacher and look at the class list to see which of their friends is in their class. On that morning, I went to Lincoln to find out who my new teacher was. To my dismay, I found out that all of my friends from second grade had a different teacher than I did. After finding out that I was not in class with any of my friends, I knew that I would have to find a new friend to talk to in my third grade class in addition to having all of my friends from second grade. At the beginning of my third grade year, I hung out with two friends I met named Phyllis and Erin. As the year progressed, I started to hang out with Angela who would soon become one of my best

Education is knowledge obtained in order to reach one’s full potential. A human being is not in the proper sense until they are educated. Two commencement speeches, “Failure and Imagination” by J.K. Rowling and “Real Freedom?” by David Wallace, and an article titled “The 4-Stage Response to Low Student Achievement” by John Lemuel, all have several aspects of education in common and provide knowledge and inspiration about the real idea and necessity for education. In these works, they all use personal experiences, an informal tone, and provide motivation to show why education is imperative to the development and fulfilment of life. Education is not useful for monetary purposes alone.

Thomas Jefferson High School welcomes a new addition to the English department, Jennifer Stephenson. Stephenson, who student taught with former English teacher and current CCT teacher, Matthew Santambrogio, now teaches Honors Introduction to Literature (Intro to Lit) and Composition and AP Language and Composition. “Ms. Stephenson definitely has a passion about the subject,” commented Santambrogio, “she is really involved and she is really cognizant of what she is teaching.”

Albany and Coppell were two unique and individual places in their own way yet had their similarities. They’re both small towns everyone knows everyone.I moved to Albany in 1st grade everything was new to me. When I first moved there I made two great friends. It’s not hard to make friends in first grade because people are more innocent and friendly towards almost everyone. I eventually left that school and went to a new school, a public one, so I had to switch school again and make new friends. This was hard for me because after about second grade I wasn’t very social, it took me an entire year to find a friend I liked. The schools in Albany weren’t that great so I never struggled everything was a breeze for me. I liked it there but after four years of living there

Every morning one man speaks over the loudspeaker to the 1,700 students that attend North Atlanta High School. But do you know who it is? Many people can’t put a name to that voice, but you may know him. His name is Zachary Bracknell, a Cadet Major in the ROTC program at North Atlanta. He comes on the announcements every morning to say the pledge of allegiance, and it is tough for me personally to see so many disregard this pledge, however there is beauty in the ability for one to sit during it. This freedom is a right given by the same country they are choosing to contempt. A right many don't have around the world.

I once attended Bullen myself, and while the experience felt monumentally difficult at the time, it allowed me to understand the impact that both negative and positive school experiences can have on a child’s future. Like many middle school students, I not only struggled within the school environment, but also faced difficulties in my home life which contributed to the issues I encountered at school. I was shy and anxious about fitting in with my peers and was bullied throughout 6th and 7th grade. By 8th grade, on average I was only attending school twice a week to pick up and drop off assignments. The only reason I didn’t drop out during that school year were a select number of

Welcome to Columbia Heights High School! We look forward to meeting all of you as you begin your high school career. We are excited to have you become part of the Hylander family and grow academically, emotionally and socially over the next four years. Our core values at CHHS means we Keep it REAL: which stands for Respect, Education, Attitude, and Loyalty. We hope you can attend one of our Open Houses to prepare you to begin the school year well. We are encouraging all incoming Freshmen to attend the open house on August 31st from 4pm-7pm but they may also come to the open house on Tuesday August 29th from 2pm-5pm to receive the same information. Both of the open house will take place in

You never realize how sheltered your school has kept you have been until you must take a mandatory class. Suddenly your regular AP or standard friends are all mixed and you have the chance to meet people you would’ve never associated with otherwise. Despite the school and even the community being a rather close-knit place, you can still find yourself in a mandatory class with no one you know. This is how I met my second family. They have helped me to realize how unaware I originally was, how I could be a role model, and that I have yet to meet people that I can become as close to as I am with my other friends.

That year I had tried to make new friends and I know I did. Their names were Cy, Caleb, Sydnee, Cole, and Tanner. After a pleasant, sunny recess one day, before we went into class I decided to make sure they were my friend and not just classmates and associates. So while we were under the to the shade of the red brick entryway, my 7 year old self just boldly asked them together. “Are we friends?” They all plainly told me yes. It made me absolutely ecstatic. Because I had thought they were my friends but there was that little thread of doubt in the back of my mind, and it had just been cut, and they were my friends all throughout elementary school. Now I feel because I had them as friends and influences I was able to be nicer, smarter, and a tad bit more

Real friendship also needs honesty. That same year, Aggie and I become roommates. We got our first apartment together and became known around town as “The Girls” because one of us was never seen without the other.

New to Kissimmee I did not know what to expect. I was always a shy kid. Not thinking I was going to make any friends anytime soon I met this kid in my neighborhood called Jacob. Turns out we got on the same bus and sat next to each other on our way to elementary school. We never got the same class until fourth grade. Let me tell you the teacher was not happy me and Jacob were a tag team of little dare devils.