Good evening teachers, faculty members, honoured guests, parents and fellow graduates. It is a privilege and a great honour to stand here before you on behalf of the graduating class of 2009, to speak about this significant moment in our lives. As you gaze upon that beautiful vista of limitless possibility that is your future, thinking, “Wow, I can’t believe how much I spent on this dress” or “I really hope I don’t lose the deposit on this tux” the greatest words of advice that I can give you is to stay clam. Now, what I am not telling you is that everything in life will be fine or that all the important aspects of your future will fall gently into place. Trust me, prepare yourself for years of peanut butter and jam sandwiches along with what will seem like your bank account never reaching triple digits again. However, what I can assure you is that you will be faced with adversity and given patience, determination and dedication you will emerge from such situations with a greater understanding of who you are, and more importantly who you want to be.

“Stay calm?” you’re thinking. “How am I supposed to possibly do that when everyone around me has their lives figured out? So and so’s life is coming together perfectly while mine appears bleak, trapped behind the perpetual ‘beep’ of a Thrifty Foods check out till.” Well, unless this person you’re referring to has a crystal ball, I can assure you that no one at our age has all the answers. And more over anyone who pretends that they do is setting themselves up for disaster. Therefore, whatever mishaps, mistakes and downright foolish choices you may have made in the past or may make in the future although most likely inexcusable, are understandable. After all, if you’re going to crash and burn; it’s better to do it as a kid, opposed to when you have kids.

As for false-starts and wrong choices, don't spend too much time doubting yourself or your decisions. 25 years from now you aren't going to regret the bad choices you made and the foolish things you did, you are only ever going to regret the opportunities that passed you by because you were too afraid to take a chance. Don’t believe me? Ask your parents. What you will hear is “I wish I’d gone to Europe when I was young or “I wonder what would have happened if I’d taken that job offer in Taiwan.” What you won’t hear is, “Getting turned down for that date when I was 23 has really haunted me.”

So go forth, do what you’re unsure of, because if you don’t you will never know how it might have worked out. And that uncertainty, that regret, more than any mistake you could ever make, is what will gnaw at you as the years pass.

Whether it’s a scary moment or a long awaited triumph, the things that happen in our past have moulded and shaped the graduates you see before you. Some of us thrive off of the exhilarating and terrifying moments, knowing that once they’re over, we’ll be stronger and better for it. Others, however, like to look back with nostalgic fondness at those moments where we truly felt on top of the world. Each of us have a favourite memory of these twelve long years of school. For some of us it’s the field trips, the theme days and the special lunches from elementary school, and for others it’s the first yearbook, the first theatre performance, or the first time they put on a spectrum uniform. Regardless of which memories we choose to look back on, it is undeniable that they have transformed us into the adults we almost are today.

Regardless of whether we look back on the past fondly or with disdain, there is no doubt that each event that we remember and each risk we remember taking is like a piece of our puzzle. Each tidbit of each memory contributes to the successes of our future, and even this ceremony, when it’s long past, will have an effect on our lives. Any risk we’ve taken not just in school, but in our lives, makes us wiser whether we reaped the rewards or fell flat on our face. Every memory is like a building block. It’s like being six years old and looking around your classroom thinking everything’s so big and intimidating, compared to when you go back and you feel like you can’t even fit in the room. Think back to the first time you went from getting yelled at in the hallways for not moving fast enough, to the first time you found yourself doing the yelling. Remember the first time you put on the thunder uniform to go out and have fun, and the last time when it meant way more to you than a hoop or a bat or a ball. Search your mind for stepping onto the theatre in your first performance being scared out of your mind, then think about taking a bow at the end of your last show, knowing how much you’ll miss it. All of these memories, these snippets of our past that have become blurry and distorted with time, have created the students you see before you.

It is irrelevant how much you value the past. To quote William Shakespeare, “What’s past is prologue.” All of the moments leading up to this have come up to, well, this. Right now all of you, my friends and peers, are jittering in your seat either pleading for graduation to be over, or hanging onto it for dear life. Whether it’s either of these two, graduation will inevitably end. The moments of the present are so fleeting and unstable that before you can really see one clearly, the next one has taken over. However, the present is not our foe. These moments that seem to fly by, like the seemingly short years of school, and the moments that drag on forever, like enduring a whole eighty minutes of math class every day, are exactly what everything we work for, dream of, and count on, are about. The present is where you can pull the moments of your past together to create a picture of what you want your life to mimic. No matter what has happened to you over the years, the exciting discoveries or the disappointing failures, the present is the only thing holding you to this moment. The risks you have taken have a great impact on who you are now, but the present is where you can become who you choose to be. Covet the present always, as it is a series of split seconds that have once been the future and will soon be the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “We are always getting ready to live, but never living.” In a sense, this quote is a true testament to the mindset that has encompassed the last 18 years of our lives. So much effort is poured into laying the ground work for the future that the present is often forgotten, and as a result, it is difficult to appreciate the nourishing experiences that shape our everyday lives. Take a moment. Think about the things in your life you take for granted due to the care-free nature of being a youth. It’s going to be a big reality check when you can’t depend on your parents to save you from sticky situations or your metabolism to keep that donut you ate after lunch off of your thighs. In the years to come, these encounters will most likely fade into a non-existent memory and the firm vices of reality will often dictate your decisions. Friends will be more than just a phone call away, opportunities will have passed faster than you had the ability to think about them and you may find yourself miles away from where you hoped to end up. However, what you have now, what you’re surrounded by, is assured so above all else; cherish it.

So, our fellow graduates of the graduating class of 2009 and our fellow hokies, we leave you with this. Think of the past as something you cannot change, but learn from. Imagine the future holding limitless possibilities and becoming everything you have dreamed. But most of all, live in the present so you can grow from your past and shape your future. Congratulations on making it this far. Let’s see how much farther we can get.