Corrina Roppo, staff-selected speaker
Freshman year: we were all excited, curious, and afraid of what the next four years had in store, not knowing what challenges we were going to face. Monroe High School is an incredible place for fourteen year olds to begin their journeys. It’s a place full of opportunities, experiences, and talents. The perfect place for me to discover who I am. Different than most freshman, I came into the Monroe High School community as an outsider. Some of you may not know that I was homeschooled second through eighth grade. Because of this, I didn’t know more than five of my soon-to-be peers.
This made my transition to the “big leagues” a little bit more challenging than ordinary. On the outside looking in, I could see that within the large community of Monroe High School, there were multiple different smaller communities. Each of those little communities had a special bond; a certain attitude and style. They were each their own rendition of a family. As a young teenage girl with a need to fit in, I was determined to become involved in as many communities as possible until I found the place I enjoyed the most, the place I belonged.
There is the basketball community, the choir community, the volleyball, national honors society, tri-m, golf, and drama communities, along with so many others. Each community gives its members a different experience.
Being on sports teams, I’ve been inundated with phrases like: “trust yourself”, “trust your teammates,” “trust your instincts”, and “just play”. These were difficult concepts for me to apply. No matter what it was: basketball, school, or theater, I would constantly second guess my initial thoughts because I was afraid of messing up. I was afraid to fail. I didn’t want to let my communities down.
I wanted to fit in so badly, to find the one place where I was supposed to be, that I was limiting myself and wasn’t representing all of who I am. Just this year I realized something: I don’t have to belong in one place. I can play a part in every sport, every club, every community. The place I belong, is everywhere. We are a class full of unique, talented, and, may I say, quite beautiful people. There is no possible way we belong in just one community.
Graduating high school is exciting, rewarding, and terrifying. We have to start-over and become a part of new communities. As we leave MHS and move on to whatever is in store for us, we have to remember that we’ve overcome loss, several all-nighters, and Mr. Giles’ crude humor. We can pretty much do anything now.
As we search for this new belonging, the people who we have shared so many memories with will continue to inspire us. Our classmates, our teachers, our friends. Our communities have shaped who we are and will help us in reaching what we are destined for, whatever that may be. We have so many people here to thank. Thank you coach Tui for believing in me and the girls’ basketball team. Thank you Mrs. Blaine for helping me to trust my initial thoughts. Thank you Mr. Hyde and Mr. Loewen for inflaming my love for music and theater. Thank you Mr. Adams for encouraging me to reach for my dreams. Thank you to each and every staff member who helped all of us conquer high school.
A community is about creating friendships with people who share common attitudes, interests, and goals. We are all leaving this community and going out into the world, ready to take on whatever challenges come our way. Whether it be in person, over Instagram, snapchat, or Facebook, throughout our journeys, we’ll be able to come together, reminisce over the good times we’ve shared, and become nostalgic of our high school memories. These last four years, we’ve had nothing but each other. Now, as we move on to greater things, we’ll be able to look back on our adventures with pride, knowing that we all have impacted each other’s lives. We are all responsible for each other’s greatness. And, as we move forward, we will all do and witness great things. I am proud to be a Bearcat and I’m excited to see what life has in store for us.
Here’s to what’s next.
Kaylee Boone, student-selected speaker
24 hours. That’s what our day consists of. 24 hours. 1440 minutes. 86,400 seconds. What are you doing in that 24 hours to make your dreams come true?
This year has been absolutely exhausting…for all of us. Working towards our dreams is exhausting on it’s own. Let alone all of the other ways that our time gets taken in a given day. Exhaustion is real, you guys. I’ve seen it happen to us over and over again this year.
But when I look back, through all the hard work, the incredible winning lip syncs (3 years in a row!!!), the eye twitches in CCR, storming the fields or the courts, actually beating the seniors in powder puff, I am so proud of all of us. We made it you guys. *have everyone cheer hopefully*
Remind yourselves that we could’ve done nothing, given up. We could’ve just slept in and not cared at all. Now that would’ve made us well rested but without experience, without dreams. Instead, we are exhausted…but what a life. A life lived pursuing dreams is a life well lived.
We definitely have people to thank for our success and dreams. Our incredible teachers, our families, our friends. We can thank Ms. Carroll’s walking class for always keeping Tester sparkling, Jaime Johnson for staying at the school 17 out of the 24 hours to keep this place running. We can thank people like Hannah Drivstuen or Natalie Logan who always greet us with a smile, the beautiful people in choir and band who kept the sounds of this school better than anywhere else. We can thank Nesland for having the best humor in the whole world while teaching math, Giles for teaching us to live authentically. We can thank Kade Harting for inspiring us with his love and kindness. There are so many people to thank. So many people that helped us reach our dreams. So many experiences to remember. Stop and think about all the people who have helped you along the way…teachers, family, parents, and friends. We could not have gotten through these past four years without each other. So, thank YOU. Let’s stand up and give a round of applause for all of the people who helped us along the way. *stand up and have everyone applause people*
So back to this 24 hours we have in a day…a CNN study came out saying that our generation spends about 9 hours a day on social media. NINE HOURS. That’s more consecutive hours than I’ve gotten of sleep in months!
After social media, we’re left with 15 hours in the day. You’re supposed to sleep for 8 of those…but who actually does? I’ll give us a generous 7 hours. Which leaves us with 8 hours. That’s school and sports or after school activities, and you might as well add another hour for traffic on Tester. No time is left to do anything worthwhile. We should use those 9 social media hours to dream, to live, to go, to do, to serve, to love, to inspire. But by giving so much of our time to social media, we lose the ability to impact the world as we are born to do. So instead of being a statistic, let’s make a difference! Let’s use our 24 hours in a day to follow our dreams and to share our talents with the world. We are all different in a sense. We all have different talents, different values, different strengths and weaknesses, but we do have something in common. We have a choice. We’ve all been given 24 hours every day. What are you going to do with yours? You all have the power to do what you dream, you just have to get up and begin.
Go cats and I love you all.
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