Faculty, parents, friends and fellow classmates,

Four long, yet short, years ago the class of 1985 walked into Mitchell High School with nothing but insecurities and each other.   Today, we are walking out of Mitchell High School carrying not only a diploma but also the experience and maturity needed to face the future with our best foot forward.

Before leaving here today, each of us needs to take a walk down memory lane.   The hallways and classrooms that comprise Mitchell High School hold a special set of reflections for each student.   The events experienced here have made the past what it was and have helped to shape the future.

Graduation can be viewed as an end.  It is an end to high school; from today on, we are alumni, not students, of Mitchell High School.   It is the physical end of several friendships for sadly enough, there are fellow classmates that we shall never see again.   Although we shall still be together in thought, the class of 1985 will be separated from each other.   After today, our lives will no longer have as many things in common.  Graduation is an end to a beautiful four years of high school that for many of us have been the best years life has given us.   However, good graduation also be a beginning.

In Eve Ledbetter’s poem, graduation is viewed as a beginning of life.  She begins by expressing the change in nature of a graduate.   The young man begins to understand things now because of the responsibility he has undertaken.  These new responsibilities make him more restrained and more sensitive.

“Graduation Day,” by Eve Ledbetter

The June grad,

As tall as his dad,

Fairly towers over Mother,

Suddenly seems another

More restrained, sensitive being,

Responsible, all at once seeing

Things yesterday’s frisky pup

Never saw while growing up,

Like the light in parental eyes

And the adoring sighs

Of his girl, so proud

That she whispers it aloud

When he takes her hand

And together they stand

Facing the future that is theirs

Heirs to our wisdom and our prayers

We must, upon graduation, expect to take that upon ourselves, as this young man did, the decisions that affect our lives.  The past has been struggled through and conquered, our graduation itself proves that we have triumphed over the past successfully; we have mastered the past and now an adventurous new frontier, the future, is in sight.  We must work to conquer it as we did the past.   Today is a distinct dividing line between the past and the future.  One is completely behind us, and the other completely in front of us.

The future is a challenge, one that each of us needs to meet boldly.   Perfect lives do not simply fall into place; each of us must direct the future to what we want it to be.  An abundance of options and opportunities exist in the world, but we must go out and find them.   Success is important to everyone, and the chances to make our lives successful exist, but we must strive for them.

The past, its memories, and its friendships are still important, but life offers more memories and friendships to anyone who accepts the challenge to face the future.  Our graduation will always be of great importance, but life is not over, in fact, it is just beginning, and this time it is up to us to make the most of it.

Monica Milligan, Valedictorian, MHS Class of 1985

May 19, 1985