Graduation Speech: Nothing is Accomplished Without Risk :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

I would like to begin by saying that I am honored to be able to stand before you tonight as a representative of my class, a great class, the class of 2012! I remember starting kindergarten and looking at high school with such awe. It was almost a dream. Each year I took a step closer, but it always seemed so far away. And yet tonight, I stand up here representing the realization of that dream. We have done it! No, really, think about it for a second, we have achieved the biggest, most anticipated event of our lives. We made it! Graduates congratulate yourselves on a job well done. Sitting here tonight shows a great deal of work and dedication. Seriously, look back on what you have done in just that last four years, let alone what you have accomplished in all your years of school. It is astounding what we have done. Congratulations, your perseverance has finally paid off. But also, we must remember to thank our parents, for it has been with their help and support that we have achieved our goal. We stand here tonight celebrating the accomplishment of our greatest achievement. But we also stand on the brink of the greatest challenge and adventure of our lives. This ceremony is all that lies between us and the so-called "real world." We are about to embark into the future. A future with infinite possibilities. High school was an important step in our lives, but it was only a step. We must always strive to educate ourselves and work to the best of our abilities. We must use the tools that we have been given to push ourselves to our fullest potential. The only way to utilize the infinite possibilities of the future is to work. To strive to do our best and then some, and to risk. Nothing in life is accomplished without risk. A risk of self, a risk of time, of money, of anything, a risk. With this is mind I would like to close by sharing with you a quote called "Man in the Arena," by Theodore Roosevelt. "It is not the critic who counts. Not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or the doer of deeds might have done them better.