Linh's valedictorian speech was delivered June 2007. Here it is in its original state. I am proud of what she had the courage to say, awkward phrases and all.
As I look out at our sea of graduates and I stand here as your representative we appear to be identical. We uniformly filed into the centre and we're all wearing the same gowns, the same hats, and the same tassels. But I know that in reality we are all individuals.
Good evening honored guests, teachers, parents, and fellow graduates. Tonight I'd like to say goodbye as every Valedictorian does but more importantly we're gathered here to reflect on all the laughs, dull moments, and defeats that high school presented us with. Any place that we go, we will all be searching for the same thing as the quest of every individual is to determine a sense of identity. This lifelong struggle causes us to enter experiences in hopes of gaining a closer glimpse of what we are here for. High school is just one element in this struggle. To most people, it represents the first chance at freedom. In the midst of this foreign privilege we've met people who tell the most exaggerated stories, throw the livest parties and work the hardest academically. From buying new ensembles for every civvies day to buying out classes just to chill in the stairwells, we found unreasonable ways to depict ourselves as individuals. Authenticity was not easily found in our early days of grade 9, but they were a lot of fun.
Soon we discovered that there are people who don't care about us. Who make us feel awkward and vulnerable and that we're not worth their time. These are the people who make us question whether our values are worth giving up for them. Regardless of who it was, we never knew out (our) hearts could ache like that. Then there were battles with parents when there wasn't enough effort, or enough respect or just not enough of what they wanted. But sometimes parents are right, as they just want to teach you the lesson before you screw up on your own. The times that we fail and are left crying alone, are the ones where you know who worries about you. We were given an opportunity to recruit the people we expected to lean on. Most of the time you find how different you are from others.
On the rare occasion you uncover a real friend. The one who doesn't judge you and finishes your thoughts before you explain them. These are the people that make you know that you'll miss your time in high school. I never really knew what it meant to bring out the best in someone but I think it's something like you make them want to be a better person. A good friend is one that believes in your potential and even when they're not around, they leave an aura of encouragement. Encouragement for who you are and for who you want to become. These are the people that you are so saving a page in your yearbook for.
High school also helps to find what you're good at. The skill of accepting what you excel in is complicated but if you've been blessed with fine teachers, it's been their job to let you know when your gift appears. Sometimes they try and we don't listen, and other times we try and they can't hear us. When you're put in situations like this it feels like one person has no chance to make a difference if a single body of authority can render your claim as non-existent. Unfortunately these situations can stop you from dreaming at all.
I think high school seems like such a big deal because it can be the first time for serious relationships, credible academic success, and catching jokes with people that you can relate with. If you don't previously know anything about what you lived through in high school, you can't properly judge it when it's experienced. Now everything that happens in your upcoming future will be compared to high school. The second time around will provide a better critique of how good something actually is. When we look at high school as an event of the past full of immaturity we need to realize that we needed to go through it as ther needs to be a first time. I'm so glad that there's another place that we can go after this and that life doesn't end or begin in specific moments. If it did, most of us would get left behind. High school is not the end, or the best, or the beginning,. If you didn't find your place here which is very common, then you're taking something away. You now know what you don't like and what you wish that your future will not contain. You can start something new today or next month but don't regret the time in between. You shouldn't ever feel like you are wasting your time while your fire burns within you because as humans we get distracted and bored and the flames dies out along with the passion. So when you grasp something like a friend, or a book, or an idea, and it adds something to your fire – keep pushing for what makes you happy.
One of the most important things that I've learned here is never to dismiss anything as that can be just as bad as believing everything you're told. As teens it mostly entails automatically answering that you're seen something before as the media and technology have provided you with this knowledge. Another form is recognizing that something is not your taste and deleting that perspective from your selective memory. We've been taught to trust our instincts and keep our defenses up. This in turn leads to a belief that changing our war tormented world is impossible. Why should we burden ourselves with fighting for the dignity of someone else when it is already so difficult to fend for ourselves? We have been programmed to believe that there is no other world than the one we currently have where all our dreams must be socially acceptable. We need to learn to take a risk in order to register the world around us.
You can't go through life in total routine without questioning why you do things the way you do. Sometimes you have to step out of the world controlled by you and learn to enjoy something else. For instance, even I have to party once in a while. If I don't I forget what the outside world is like. Like I can't joke with my textbook, it doesn't talk back to me. And when I'm trying out my PCD (Pussy Cat Dolls) moves there's no one to criticize me. Being out with my friends and not worrying about what's due Monday lets me live a different kind of life. But most of the time I'm not even studying, I'm just dreaming. I'm dreaming about all the things that I can't do. Like how I can't be there for my family even though they beg me to spend time with them. Or how I'm mad at my best friend but I can't tell her because I don't want her to feel bad. Or how I sit at home while everyone else has fun because I'm responsible and I actually want to show up to work the next day normal. Or how my goals in life are unattainable. My dreams are bigger that anything I will ever be. And that's my greatest fear. It's disappointment. It's severely failing because I don't have the power to do something. And I think it's legitimate to dream but it hurts and it bothers me because people will tell me that I have the potential to do anything I want. But it's not entirely true. And that's the most unfair thing in the world. No one will ever understand how badly you desire something or how much you fear another. But I'll never stop dreaming. They make me who I am because I live my life for my dreams. The point is that dreaming makes you human and even though society and reality win because it's where we live our lives, you can't let it beat you down. You'll always hate that no one can comprehend your struggle. And you have to reconcile with the fact that a part of your soul will forever remain a secret. And that's what truly makes us individuals. Because that secret is the fire.
So if you see me in 10 years and I'm not a doctor don't feel bad for me. Ask me if I'm happy where I am and if I did everything I could to get there. Ask me if I found something else. Maybe I truly found that there is something better for me because honestly, this is my first dream. It may be the most socially acceptable but at this moment I feel it calling for me. It inspires me more than any other emotion and hopefully that is because it is what I was meant to be.
Ultimately you need to ask yourself what the world will be missing if you were no longer a part of it. Don't be passive as it renders your life useless. Our situations, give us everything and we don't even see it. Half of the world cannot even imagine what its like to live like we do. We are royalty because we have the ability to educate our minds and dream a limitless number of dreams. I told one if my teachers that I wish everyone wanted to be a role model. I want it to be okay to live your own life and be a good individual that is constantly trying to balance and find yourself. Take opportunity to affect other people with the guidance of your gifts and provoke goodness in others. Don't do it because you owe it to your peers or your parents, do it for yourself and for the sake of humanity. Everyone needs someone to look up to. So let's challenge ourselves to set the standard.
Graduating is an excuse to look back on the past and come up with a conclusion to rate your experience as an individual. Why is it that we wait for moments like these to reflect? I think that graduating should make us realize that we need to assess ourselves at the end of everyday. With practice this skill should prevent us from acting with the same excessive grd. (grade) 9 attitude when we get to the next phase in life. The was society is structured should not manipulate the way we carry ourselves. Joseph Campbell once said that “The function of a society is to cultivate the individual. It is not the function of the individual to support society.” You owe it to yourself and what you've learned never to settle for less than happiness. Dreams change and so do the people around you but the human desire to find it's identity to belong never does.
So when we leave today there are so many reasons to feel accomplished as we reflect on what we've overcome in high school. But remember that there is more. There's an entire world of people we've never met and emotions we've never felt. That's how you know that your journey to find your identity is not finished. My studies do not define who I am but they are a huge part of who I am. We should not forget what's important to us but further why these things are such priorities. The extraordinary value lies in the questions, not in the answers. There are no answers and we shouldn't base our lives on expectations. Everyone is enveloped in the same struggle and we are all at different points on our journey. And why shouldn't it be that way. It validates the originality of every individual.
So I wish everyone the courage to find happiness. And wherever life takes you I hope that you remember that you're not alone in your struggle. I'm so proud of everyone that has the ability to say that they're graduation. Congratulations, we made it Now let's give the world something to talk about.