When I was in eighth grade, I had the opportunity to write and submit a graduation speech. In my graduation speech, I compared our junior high years to running a cross-country race. I was inspired by my mother to take a look back at what I had written and try and apply it to my life today.

In many ways, our journey of life can be compared to a cross-country race. Everybody's race is a little different. Each one of us have our own paths to take, and we all approach them in a different way. We spend quite a bit of time training for this race. We are not just thrown into the race. This training consists of guidance from our parents, and the many lessons that they taught us. Just as a coach guides a runner through different drills to prepare them for the race, our parents teach us the different lessons of life.

The beginning of our race is when we leave home and head to college. Now you are almost completely on your own in the world. Sure, mom and dad are on the sidelines cheering you on and pushing you to be your best, but this is your race and nobody can run it for you. When you start a race you usually start off at a nice easy pace so that you can run through the entire distance of the race. When you arrive at college, you still have people that continue to help you with everyday life. Meals are still prepared and offered to you. The college provides some form of orientation to show you the ropes. During this time, you will grow into an adult. You will have some things that you will be expected to do on your own, such as your laundry, and others that will still be available to you, such as meals. College is the first half of your race, you may start to get weary, but you'll find a way to continue to push through to the finish line.

The second half of the race begins after college. Now you are a full-blown adult. You have to find a job and do all of the adulting responsibilities for your own. Along the way, we have found our competitors and our teammates. Our competitors pushed us to be the best that we could be, and to continue on. Our teammates are the ones that guided us through the first stage of our race, and although they may not be running with us anymore, they still cheer us on. Some of our teammates ran a different route right away -- our high school friends-- while others ran with us through college and are now taking a different path. They are all still our teammates though. They will always support us and cheer us on to the finish line. These are the people that motivated us to keep running through until the end.

Now, where is this finish line? We don’t have just one finish line. There are going to be many other finish lines in the years to come. There are the finish lines at the end of high school, college, our first real job in the real world and even retirement. Milestones. But right now, all we have to worry about is the finish line that we are about to cross, the one right in front of us. When we accomplish the task at hand, we have crossed a finish line, but we have also started another leg of the race. In this leg, we will find great teammates that will run by our sides through our many races to come, and our team will continue to grow.

As our team grows, we will grow. We will grow in faith. Our endurance will improve. We will become stronger. It is important that we all become a team and encourage one another in this race. We are all running toward the ultimate finish line: Heaven. Let's take time to pray with one another, laugh with one another, cry with one another and just be with one another. Savor the moments and finish strong.