Graduation speech

   WELCOME

 

Members of the Somonauk Board of Education, Administration, faculty, family, and friends:

 

On behalf of the Class of 1991, I would like to welcome you to this year's commencement exercises.

 

As we, the graduates, leave this auditorium today, we embark on a new adventure in our lives.  This experience reminds me of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's famous poem "Ulysses."  In it, Ulysses, the hero of Homer's Greek epic, leaves behind the security and familiarity of his home to set sail for new adventures.  This is much like what we will experience today as we leave behind our years of schooling and set off into our futures.

 

In Tennyson's poem, Ulysses says he intends  "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

 

We can relate this line to all our lives.  We strive to reach the goals we set in life.  We seek the new experiences that life has to offer.  We attempt to find the answers to questions that life presents.  And, most importantly, we will not yield in all our life endeavors.

 

May we, the Class of 1991, "drink life to the lees" and triumph as did Ulysses as we set off on the next great adventure of our lives.

 

****I delivered this speech as salutatorian at my high school graduation class in 1991. Mrs. Lehman helped me immensely. I actually think she did most of this for me.