Lynnwood High School 2016 Valedictorian speeches

Published 12:18 pm Monday, June 20, 2016

The Herald is publishing some of the speeches being given by local graduating seniors at high school commencement ceremonies. See more speeches and photos here.

Jacey Anderson

Fellow graduates, relatives, and faculty,

I must begin by saying that if I spoke every language in the world I could not express how grateful I am to everyone in the audience whose roles in our lives allowed this day to come. Please join me for a moment and give a round of applause for the people who have supported you for the past four years and led you to this moment.

I do not intend to offer advice in this speech. Very few of us, I’m sure, are interested in having an 18 year old tell them how to live. Years from now, I doubt most of you will remember the name of your high school salutatorian, and that’s exactly as it should be. People were not built to withstand the ravages of time, that is the job of ideas — and it is ideas that I wish to speak with you about today.

Teenagers are often the victims of unpleasant stigmas in our society. Popular culture often depicts us as resource-guzzling delinquents whose only contribution to civilization is the carbon dioxide we exhale. I can say with complete candor that nothing in life (with the possible exception of AP Calculus) confuses me as much as this stereotype. When I look over the crowd beside me, I see youth but not naiveté. I see ambition, but not ruthlessness. I see a group of multifaceted, inspiring, wonderfully diverse people who have managed to coexist and even thrive together for four years. This is something that eludes most of society even today, and it is more than worth celebrating. Congratulations to all of you.

Consider something for a moment: in October of 2012, a young Pakistani girl named Malala was shot three times in the head simply for boarding a school bus and attempting to attend class. In 2010, a truly brilliant student was expelled from school in China and condemned to working a rice paddy for the rest of his life because his family could not pay the $13 annual fee for him to attend school. In the country of Niger, only 28.7% of the adult population was literate in 2014. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have ensured that only 6% of women over 25 have received any degree of formal education.

The point of these anecdotes is that education does not happen accidentally — it is a privilege denied to many, and we represent a tiny fraction of very lucky people. Already we have been given opportunities that people risk their lives to pursue, and we have reached the end of the first leg of our journey. All of you sit here today as accomplished, thoughtful people with the means and ability to transcend the limitations of your time. There is no denying that we live in a tumultuous age, but the fact remains that education is the bridge between this chaos and the ideals that push us to strive for greater things.

I say the phrase greater things, but I am not referring to the usual feats referenced by this idiom. I believe greatness is an inherently subjective term — it applies to everyone, but to no two people in the same way. It is just as impressive for a person suffering from severe depression to get out of bed as it is for an athlete to run a five minute mile. You can evaluate yourself only in the context of your own life, and this is sometimes difficult to remember. However, as of right now all of your records for getting through difficult days is 100%. You have proven you can overcome adversity. But challenges still lie ahead, and I would like to help you arm yourself to confront them in the best way that I know how. To do that, I need to tell a brief story.

Last year, during the obligatory yearbook signing craze I passed my yearbook to my friend Angela, who returned it soon after with a message that I hope resonates with you as strongly as it did with me. “Jacey, I think your best quality is your niceness, how you’re always willing to take time from your busy schedule to help someone out or just talk to them. Peace, love, and happiness, Angela Geyer.” Angela had the intelligence, the ambition and the determination to pursue a remarkably wide variety of career paths. And yet, she considered the most important quality a person could have to be simple kindness, a trait that is uniquely accessible to all.

Everyone is born equal, but we are far from the same — I will never be capable of performing higher-order mathematics with ease, and will never go to the Olympics as a gymnast. It’s not in the cards. Every one of us has similar limitations, and that’s okay — diversity is what strengthens us. There is one thing that we can all be, however, and that is kind. Allowing your trials to warp your personality and change you into a bitter, resentful person would make you no different from those who seek to build walls rather than seek constructive solutions to today’s issues. Compassion is the great equalizer — we can all exercise it, it costs nothing to offer and its impact defies belief. In these divisive times, nothing could possibly influence the future more positively than a generation who refuses to be defined by their trials, a generation that chooses decency over discrimination.

Whether or not my words reached you today, regardless of what you all you do with your lives after this, this is a defining moment. This is when the world begins to take on color. You all have my respect and admiration — it was a privilege to experience these last four years with you. Especial thanks to my own family, teachers, and friends — I would be a far blander and sadder person were it not for your influence. Everything redeeming quality I have can be traced back to you. Again, I offer my very heartfelt congratulations. Peace, love and happiness to you all.

Lacey Nguyen

Greetings friends, family, esteemed faculty of LHS, and class of 2016, my name is Lacy Nguyen, and I am your class speaker tonight.

I racked my brains trying to figure out how I wanted to introduce this speech, and unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with anything. I thought about telling a hilarious anecdote about how I ran into an old lady with my bike once. Or, about using an inspirational quote from one of the most esteemed influencers of our time, Kanye West. I even was so desperate as to start my speech with a hypothetical question, but I knew all of the English teachers would simultaneously take out their pitchforks and light me on fire (with words of course). Ultimately, I couldn’t decide on how to start this speech because I am perpetually an indecisive person.

I have always been indecisive because I have been afraid of making the wrong choices. To be quite honest with you Class of 2016, I am terrified of the choices I will have to make in the future. And I’m not just talking about decisions regarding what I will eat for breakfast tomorrow, or whether or not I want to get bangs to cover up my giant forehead. No, I’m talking about essentially any anxiety-inducing decision-making that could potentially alter the trajectory of my life permanently.

I am terrified that I won’t be able to make any new friends at college. I am terrified that I have chosen the wrong college, and I am terrified that I will choose the wrong career. I am terrified of never becoming the person that I want to be, and I am terrified that I will never make a difference in this world. Most of all, I am terrified that I will let the people I love most in this world down.

The thing about fear is, it stops you right in your tracks, and it paralyzes you. It stops you from living your life the way you are supposed to, and it prevents you from being the person you were meant to be.

And so for a while, I let this fear consume me. I started looking to other people to make decisions for me. I listened carefully to what they had to say, about what was best for me and my future. I valued their opinion so much, that I stopped listening to myself. My personal wants and needs were drowned out by hundreds of other voices, because I was afraid of messing up. Eventually, I got tired of everyone telling me what to do. Except for my mom of course (love you mom). I realized I wasn’t happy letting other people decide how I would live my life.

Although it took me nearly my whole entire life to figure this out, I realized having the ability to make my own decisions is not something to be afraid of. Rather, it is a precious gift that cannot be taken for granted. The fact that all of us (gesture to class of 2016) can choose who we want to be, what we want to do, and where we want to go is incredibly liberating.

If you think about it, we all had to make different decisions to get to where we are today, sitting here in all of our caps and gowns. Fellow classmates, recall every moment you had to wake up at an ungodly hour to catch the bus because you couldn’t drive yet. You could have chosen to stay in your warm, comfy bed, but instead, you dragged yourself out to continue your free public education. Recall that moment, when you had an English paper due at 11:59pm on a Tuesday night, and you turned it in at 11:58 because you chose to procrastinate and watch cat videos on the internet, but you still got it in on time. Remember every moment you stayed up late studying, stressing over a test, and going in after school to get help, all so you could get your grades up.

Michael Dinh

Fellow graduates, families, and faculty,

I first off want to thank everyone who has supported us in our journey to graduation. I especially want to give a special thank you to the faculty of Lynnwood High School that have given their time to help us achieve a greater education. Without any of you, graduating would have been a distant dream.

About 18 years ago, plus or minus 365 days, the class of 2016 was born. This class is filled with wonderful people with amazing talents. When I think of the class of 2016, I think of athletes, brainiacs, dancers, singers, entrepreneurs, and instrumentalists. All of you represented our school in events that ameliorate our school’s status. That “Lynn-hood” status is disappearing because we are showing our community that we are not jokes and our school is not “ghetto”. We’ve raised tens of thousands of cans for our local food drive, participated in anti-racial inequality groups like BSU, and given thousands of hours to help our community. It is a blessing to be a part of such a diverse and successful class.

Therefore, today is a special day that is worth celebrating. We have survived a lot of misfortunes- all the way from terrorists attacks, swine flu, ebola, climate change to AP tests, pop quizzes, break-ups, and acne. Through all of this, we still managed to graduate.

As I created my speech, I was told to give a piece of advice. I tried to think of the most ideal advice this youngster here could give you – the most perfect thing that I could say. But the thing is, I don’t have much to offer. Like you all, I have only been living for a short 18 years. In multiple ways, I actually learn from all of you. So instead, I will give you my outlook on life, what I have observed and learned so far, rearticulating my knowledge for you today.

You are all intelligent and capable people. You know the world in a way no other generation does. We were born in an era that barely used technology, but grew up learning all the advanced gadgets that were created in the process. Our past ancestors grew up without many answers, only with questions. But for our generation, we grew up with answers, answers that can solve those questions. A different dilemma lies ahead of us now – how do we continue to challenge ourselves by finding new questions to ask? Despite all the opportunities and possibilities we have, there will be time when we cannot answer any questions. A time where we will feel lost, hopeless, depressed, and want to give up. There will be people who will try to hinder our future out of jealousy, malice, and ill-intent. They will say hurtful words, harming us physically and mentally. But we still have to believe and keep going. We won’t give up just because of what people say. We will use that as a motivation to push forward. Even in the depths of the darkest oceans, some light always pierces through, saving us from our despair. Whether we’re sad, a mess, or have hit rock bottom, we still have to move forward! That’s how we will survive and become successful.

We will soon take our final steps together as high school students, and transition into the realm of adulthood. To your left and to your right are people that you have spent millions of seconds together with, whether you want to acknowledge that or not. Although we only have about an hour left together, we will always remain together one way or another. But do not fret, because no matter how far you move away, or how hard you try to isolate yourself from us, it isn’t going to work. There is no escape. Wherever you go, the friends you have made and your family will be with you forever – whether that may be in your habits, speech patterns, or decisions that you make. Why is this important? It is because we will never be alone. There will always be something or someone there, whether or not it is tangible. In reality, we can’t do it alone. As we go on in our lives, make sure to take some time to converse with different people. Brilliant ideas generally come from other minds than our own. For instance, if we neglected Newton’s, Einstein’s, Euler’s, and John Locke’s’ ideas and beliefs, our fundamental principles of social and educational values wouldn’t lead us to where we are today. We all made it here because of someone who influenced or supported us in our journey.

As we part today, I want to end off with a short story between a dear friend and I… Her name is Angela Geyer. We were talking about our future occupations. I told her I wanted to become a doctor because that was basically the occupation that my parents implemented into my mind as a young padawan. She asked me why and I simply replied, “because I want money”. I’ll save you the hassle and not tell you about the hour long lecture she gave me about my reasoning, but I will tell you one thing that I learned in that deep and meaningful conversation: think about your future and who you want to truly be. Don’t pick an occupation that has a high salary, or donates money just because; instead be someone who leaves an impression that gives others a little more happiness and hope in the world. This can be done in multiple ways, like becoming a teacher despite knowing the less than adequate salary. It doesn’t have to be complex and sophisticated like traveling to Africa and constructing a well to gather fresh water. Live a life that has meaning, not one that has the most benefits to yourself. If you don’t understand what I am talking about, take a moment and look at the sky. When I look at the sky, I realize how small I am compared to the whole world. The light pouring down and illuminating that small me feels like it has washed away my hardships. Be the sun that provides warmth and energy to people.

“A happy life is a successful life”, Angela told me.

Wherever you go and whatever you do, good luck. I hope your journey will bring happiness to everyone.