Graduation is an exciting day and when you get to speak at graduation it is even better. Getting to "inspire" my class for the rest of their lives is such an amazing opportunity... at least that is what I thought.

Below is my graduation speech, but it is not mine... it is the one that the school made me read. Yep that is right, I wasn't allowed to say what I wanted to my class, instead I had to continually change my speech to be encouraging enough for the school board. Apparently it is better to give people the idea that they will succeed in life no matter what they do than try to inspire them and tell them that unless they get off their ass and do something they wont make it as far in life as they think they will. Everyone has a chance of success but not everyone is willing to work for it. So, class of 2016 congratulation on this success but don't think you made it here and everything else is uphill unless you continue walking you will fall down the hill and have to watch everyone else make it to where you want to be.

Welcome family, friends, and most importantly the class of 2016! It wasn’t too long ago that we were sitting in this same position at our kindergarten graduation. Our little hands grasped tightly to a rope that would guide us onto the stage where we would be handed our diploma, we were watching our mothers cry with pride as they realized that we reached one of our many mountain tops and we felt proud—invincible almost. Today however, we have a different mindset than we did back then.

At the impressionable age of five, we knew nothing of the life that would unfold before us, all we knew was that each moment was new and with each new moment came a new success. At this point in our lives success was nothing more than coloring inside the lines, transferring from one living room object to the other without touching the lava, or simply making sure to catch the next episode of "SpongeBob." As we grew, society frequently told us to color inside the lines, mind our manners by not jumping on the furniture, and that television would rot our brains. At the innocent age of five we were on the track to become “just another member of society,” but here at Madison, that was unacceptable. We were not told to color inside the lines we were taught to make our own lines, we were told to not transfer from one living room object to the other we were told to jump, and we were not told that TV would rot our brains –rather we were asked what happene in the last episode of “SpongeBob.” Madison has taught us to not simply become, but to be. It has taught us that we need to embrace our differences and use those differences to leave a mark on this world. Sitting before me today is possibly one of the most diverse group of people that I know, a group of people that you can only find at Madison. We certainly are unique, we are the class who has defied our limitations. We are the class who scored the highest on the OGT’s in Madison history, we are the class where we have not one valedictorian, but 3, and we are the class who has sent many students to state for BPA or track.

Entering Madison high school, it was clear that we all bled green, from our school spirit at the fall football games to the overwhelming amount of club participation, Ram Pride was overly apparent. As we progressed throughout our four years here at Madison we began to learn that while we all did bleed green, none of us bled the same shade of green and that is the best part about the ram nation. From forest to seafoam or lime to hunter, here at Madison we have learned to embrace each shade regardless of its relevance to our own or our own personal opinion of that shade.

Now, at some point we were all asked what we wanted to be, we responded in confidence with answers such as astronaut, cowboy, or princess and while these were true aspirations we were told to dream more “realistically.” Madison did not allow us to accept this confinement, however. They instilled us with the belief that someone who studies English or philosophy does not have a lesser chance of success than someone who studies biology or physics. They have inspired us to live each day by our class motto, “To achieve all that is possible, we must attempt the impossible. To be all that we can be, we must dream of being more.” So now when we are asked what we want to be we say things such as geneticists, U.S. Airmen, or public relations specialists. Many people would say that we are simply unaware of our limitations, but that is not true, we are just simply not afraid of them or failure anymore. As Brendan Behan once said, “If you accept your limitations you go beyond them.” We now know that a world without differences is a world of peril and that no aspiration is too large.

So class of 2016, congratulations on this success but don’t let it be your last. Carry your Ram pride out into the world! Learn, change, experience new things and ALWAYS strive for the best because we are not just high school graduates, we are Madison, but as great as that is no one will ever know unless you let them. So, as we embark on the rest of this journey and we write out our future, do not simply write in black and white, write in your shade of green, leave your mark on the future and be proud to part of the Ram Nation.