Valedictorian Mikhaila Rice: Now It's Our Time

Valedictorian Mikhaila Rice addressed her class June 1. Here was what she had to say:

Wow you guys, it’s hard to believe that this moment, our commencement, is finally here. We’ve worked and waited for this event our entire lives and now what?  Where do we go from here? Often at commencement, graduates are told that their futures are bright; however, a bright future is not guaranteed; it is something we must work for. I don’t have all, or even half, of the answers when it comes to creating a perfect future, mostly because each and every one of us has a completely different vision of what that is. You may not even have a vision of the future yet, and that’s okay. As sure as some of us might be about our plans, we can really only be sure that they will change over time. I would like to simply share a few realizations I’ve had over the past four years that might give you some thoughts on how to move forward.

 First, I’d like to remind everyone how blind we are. Life loves to throw us curve balls. The question is – are we afraid to try to hit the curve, and do we let the ball go over the plate, or do we take a swing?  Life’s curve balls are annoyances, serious problems, and opportunities all rolled up into one. I personally have had so many experiences in high school that I didn’t hope for or plan for, but looking back I realize that each and every one of them worked out for the best in some way. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. And through high school I’ve learned that sometimes the reason doesn’t even have anything to do with me, but with someone else. There are roughly 300 people graduating here today, and 3 million graduating from high schools across America this year. How would it be possible for each one of us to always have things work out exactly the way we want it to?  An essential part of growing up is realizing that we are a just small piece of a much larger picture.

Robert F. Kennedy once said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of a generation.”  As we consider our futures, and all of the possibilities that open up for us after high school, I think we realize that we can’t all be the president of the United States or the scientist who discovers a treatment for Alzheimer’s or cancer. However, we all have the ability to do something productive and purposeful with our lives. And more importantly, we all have the ability to do something that will impact the life of a friend, an acquaintance, even a stranger. We can identify causes that are meaningful to us, and then band together with those who are like-minded. As Kennedy said, history is created by a collection of small actions, small acts of kindness or ingenuity, which are then molded together to form a better world. We truly have an opportunity to change the world, if we work together. 

The future is intimidating, unclear, and bound to be so different from any of our past experiences, as well as from what we expect. Fortunately, we have all been prepared tremendously well by our families and by the Avon Lake Schools. The Avon Lake community, despite some hard economic times, provides funding for our schools, which the administrators and educators at Avon Lake have used to create a nationally ranked high school experience. And the great majority of us have had loving, hard-working, adults in our lives, parents in some cases, and coaches or teachers in others, who have sacrificed much to get us to this point.  
 

And now it’s our time. As we go from here trying to find ourselves and create our futures, remember that we don’t have to do any of this alone. The people who got you here will continue standing behind you. You will make new friends, meet new teachers, work at new places, and the point is that, no matter where you are, we’re all in this together. I encourage all of you to use what you’ve learned here in Avon Lake to perform the small acts that, when viewed together, will make our generation stand out as passionate, determined, and empathetic people.

Thanks to each and every one of you for making this an incredible past four years and for giving me optimism about what we will be able to achieve. Congratulations to all of you on your accomplishments and on your commencement!

Thank you