CJ Sternfels, Lynnwood High School graduation speech
Take action. Every story you’ve ever connected with, every leader you’ve ever admired, every puny little thing that you’ve ever accomplished is the result of taking action. You have a choice. You can either be a passive victim of circumstance or you can be the active hero of your own life. -Whitford
A Pizza Bagel. One part pizza, one part bagel. Arguably one of God’s greatest creations. Luckily for me, and the rest of the graduates sitting in front of me, we had access to pizza bagels our freshman year and had this wonderful thing called Donut Friday’s. Friday’s were every sugar addict’s dream. For just $1, you had access to a variety of fried sugary dough. That’s where most of my allowance went that year. Freshman year was the first and last year I would ever enjoy something as lovely as a pizza bagel and spend my allowance on Donut Friday’s. This is because our former first lady, Michelle Obama, took action on what she believed in, which is a healthier lifestyle for all America, and took that away from us. But try as I might, I couldn’t be bitter towards her because she stood up for what she believed in, she found her cause and advocated for it. She is a thinker, a doer, a proactive member of our society, and these are all things that I wish for all the graduates to be someday. If there is anything that I want you to take away from my speech today, it will be that you can do anything you put your mind to, you just need to take action. DON’T TALK ABOUT IT. BE ABOUT IT. Whatever your “it” may be. Good evening ladies and gentleman. My name is CJ Sternfels, and I am very excited to be speaking here today. Class of 2017, we made it! Well, almost.
As the great street philosopher Drake once said, “started from the bottom now we here. Started from the bottom now my whole crew here”. Well, I couldn’t get here without the help from many others. I just want to say thank you to mom and dad, for making sure I did my homework even when I didn’t want to, loving me and supporting me through my super crazy vegan “save the world, plastic equals death” phase that turned out to be my lifestyle and I want to thank you for being the first to instill in me this sense that if I want something to get done, I have to go out and get it done myself. I want to give a shoutout to my teachers, you all inspire me each and every day. Mrs. Torres and Mr. Ray, you helped me find my passion for the sciences and the environment. Mr. Caesar, you taught me Stoichiometry. Mrs. Stevenson and Mr. Onishi, you played a pivotal role in helping to shape me into the individual I am now. Mrs. Villalobos, Mr. Rockne – without your guidance, this speech would have many grammatical errors. I also would not be here today because English is a required class to pass and if I didn’t pass, I wouldn’t be graduating. Mr. Chan and Mr. Godbe, thank you for making me memorize the first quadrant trig table… I’m sure I’ll be using it in my future. Mr. Shaw, thank you for showing me to be passionate about what I am doing. I will miss you and your “cuckoo-banana-pants” antics. I want to give a shoutout to my friends, specifically those who refer to themselves as Monster Squad. You know who you are. Thank you for all the love and support and for all the memories, and I can’t wait to see your future success. I even want to give a shout out to those who I’ve never met or spoken to before, we all grew up together, surviving link crew, the awkwardness of freshman year, transitioning to safari sophomores, we survived the endless testing of junior year, and reaped the benefits of front row seating at football games our senior year, where we had the opportunity to witness our boys go to state. Lastly I would like to give a shout out to those who didn’t think they would make it to this point, but did. I want to acknowledge those who took on the massive responsibility of Running Start… We have several students here graduating with an Associate’s degree! As 18 year olds! That is a wonderful! There are so many students that do marvelous things that go unnoticed, and I’m here today to say I am truly proud and feel honored to be graduating alongside you.
When I look around to the people sitting in front of me, I see hard workers, I see best friends, I see people who are going to go out and change the world. I don’t see a class of strangers, with the only thing in common the fact that we are all graduating, or the fact that no class after us will enjoy a pizza bagel the way we did. I see one big, very accomplished family. Like a family, we’ve experienced many ups and downs together. We’ve been through things that some of us had never been through before, like experiencing the loss of a dear classmate, Cedric Cunanan, our freshman year. At this time, Cedric’s close friend will release a red balloon in remembrance of him.
His positive spirit and kindness were missed throughout high school. Now, even though we have experienced lows in the past, it has made us closer and stronger as a family, who together, have shared many moments of glory. We have several athletes who broke school records time and time again. Our class alone had 29 athletes named as an All Wesco Athlete. That’s the largest number LHS has ever had. We have very accomplished actors and actresses, like McKenna Sessions, Khloe Kendall, Nathaniel Edward Pius, and Elijah Connor to name a few. We have aspiring young artists like Funky Frank, and we have some of the most brilliant young minds in the world like Emily Riley, who is going to grow up to be an Aerospace Engineer and take us to Mars someday! Our class is so diverse in every aspect, but that’s only part of what makes us so great.
Yes we are very different, but one thing we have in common is every single one of us has the power to make a difference in someone else’s life, in someone’s world, and all we have to do is believe that we can. With that being said, nothing is going to be handed to us on a silver platter. If you truly want to make a difference in this world, you are going to have to put yourself out there and push for that change.
You’re probably familiar with Ghandi’s quote, “be the change you wish to see in this world.” I am a firm believer in this saying, because at the end of the day, it is up to you and you alone to see to it that your voice is heard. Now I say that, but everything is easier said than done. You may be thinking “okay cj, you keep saying that if I want something I need to go get it, I need to be proactive, ya da ya da ya da… but what the heck does that mean?”
When I tell you to not just talk about it, but to be about it, I am telling you to find what you are passionate about, even if it is something as trivial as bringing back pizza bagels to Lynnwood. Tell people about your cause, spread the word in order to gain more awareness. Don’t just sit there idly expecting people to be on the same page as you. Not everyone will get what you are advocating, nor will they agree. Don’t let that dissuade you. I believe James Franco once said, “haters gonna hate, and ainter’s gonna ain’t”. So just go out there, be proactive, do ya thang. Again, ‘DON’T TALK ABOUT IT. BE ABOUT IT.
With that, I would like to officially extend my congratulations to the class of 2017. You’re going to go out there and do big things, and I cannot wait to see how you are going to leave your mark on this world. Thank you.
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