8th Grade Graduation Speech

Nine years ago, I came to St. Anne’s. You would think starting in a new school would be hard, well the first day it definitely was. In the beginning, I knew nobody, and I mean nobody. But by day’s end, I was friends with almost everyone in the class. To me, this story says a lot about our school.

St. Anne’s has taught us so many things, beyond what other schools do. All classes here are meant to challenge us to do our best. Even thought we might not like it at times, these challenges will help us through high school and beyond.

This may sound a little corny, but it’s true. St. Anne’s helped us to become the people we are today. The enthusiasm our teachers feel for their subjects is passed to us. Though it is hard for some of us to get into physics equations or ancient Egyptian mythology, we have our preferences. We all learned something of value in each of our classes.

Teachers and others here also serve as models of faith. Something we learned here that cannot be taught at other schools, is that God is the center of our lives. We’ve learned about the teachings of Christ and what it means to be his disciples. How to make good decisions, how to make good choices, and how we can pass on our faith and knowledge to others.

We have been through a lot together. Our many years together forged a strong bond between us. We care about one another like brothers and sisters. Everyone in the class understands each other. Sometimes we fight like brothers and sisters, but in the end we always come together. Our favorite memories include, making Wall-E, a cardboard robot, with Mrs. Leonard, campfire songs at Tremont, Pi Day is always fun because Mrs. Melkowski brought in tiny pies in celebration of that wondrous math day. Mr. T was a PE teacher in kindergarten. That was fun. But we are all glad Mrs. Campbell replaced him. He is more suited for History, not Physical Education. Spirit Day is always one of our favorite memories when we look back on past school days. Winning or losing the Spirit Stick never took away from the great time we had competing for it. In elementary school the class’ favorite day of all time was Field Day, a whole entire day of playing outside and doing zero school work was heaven for us.

Throughout or lives we are continuing to change. Today is another transition, in our lives we will never forget the lessons St. Anne’s has taught us. The memories we have made here, and the amazing people we have met. These things will remain with us for the rest of our lives. Take what we have gained in knowledge and faith and build upon it – let’s make the world a better place.