Life as Valedictorian

Submitted by Katie Piket, 2010 Valedictorian

Life as Valedictorian 

      Ever since I have seen my sister’s high school graduation, I have always looked up to the Valedictorian as a role model, a goddess, a famous and successful person. I felt that being Valedictorian, you would feel a sense of pride and joy that no one else could feel. For some people this kind of “pride and joy” could be at something you love to do. I knew that before they went up and said their speech they practiced but that was quite all. I always thought about talking to the Valedictorians that I saw and asking them “How is it to be Valedictorian of your class?” but unfortunately, I never did. I put them on such a great pedestal, that I was too scared to ask. I feel like the pedestal I put on them was actually too high, now because then; I thought that they didn’t live a “normal life”, it’s like I saw them as not human. However, as my days came closer to my own graduation, I started to realize this. I always looked up to the Valedictorians I knew of, but I never truly believed I would be one until one day in my chemistry class my junior year, my teacher, Ms. Guthrie, asked, “You know you could actually be Valedictorian.” At that moment, I stared at her with disbelief and in my head, I was thinking to myself, “Yeah, right. Like I have a real good chance at becoming Valedictorian.”  But the more and more I thought about it, the more it became an possibility for me to see it, to actually become it. The more I thought about it, the more I just kept on making up speech ideas for it. This is when I actually started chasing to be Valedictorian.
      By the time they announced that I was Valedictorian of my class; I already sort of guessed it. But the weird thing was is when it was announced, I felt like I was numb or in disbelief. I definitely wasn’t in denial about it because I knew about it and I didn’t try to ignore it. However, I simply just didn’t feel the spark that I thought I was going to feel about it, but I was happy about it. After it was announced that I was Valedictorian, I started to write my speech. During this time, I started to feel like I had mood swings every five seconds about becoming Valedictorian. One minute I felt happy to disbelief, shock, overwhelmed, sad, and sometimes I asked myself “What did I get myself into?” I started being asked about if I wrote my speech and what my speech was about. In addition, I was asked to be on WCPO’s “Best of the Class” which was a great honor, but it seemed that it made my mood swings even worse for a moment. This new responsibility became an extra burden on me that I had to take on besides trying to do my homework and get ready for college. Somehow I knew that I could take on this responsibility.
   When I wrote my first draft of my speech, I gave it to Mrs. Ray to edit. I remember walking of that classroom and saying, “What did I do?” I felt that she was ripping my speech apart. I know that she was only trying to help me, but she was ripping my baby apart and breaking my heart. But the more I looked at my speech, the more that I thought that she didn’t change that much. Then I started to have other people look at my speech, and they started to make corrections. I wanted them to make corrections because I wanted my speech to be perfect, but at the same time, I knew I had to adjust to the corrections, so I stopped people from editing it. By writing this speech, I learned that this speech is a lot harder then I thought it would be. However, as being Valedictorian, I noticed my reward of being Valedictorian was to write a speech and I kept thinking is this fair? Here I am the smartest person in my class and I have to write another speech. But I was okay because I hope that on graduation day the feeling of speaking my speech would pay off by all the work that I put into my speech.
      When graduation day came, I was a little nervous about the crowd. I knew that I was well prepared, but I felt that if people were on the top stands of the Cintas Center, that I would some how choke. Since I was nervous, my throat kept on becoming dry every time I would get a drink of water. This made me think about; what if my throat gets to dry that I won’t be able to speak? However, as I went on the stage on graduation night, there were less people in the crowd then I thought and I told myself that since my throat kept on getting dry, just take your time speaking which is exactly what I did. When I walked out on to the floor, I was just so overwhelmed by the crowd. Everyone cheering and supporting all the graduates. Then, when I got to my seat all I could think about is my family and once I got on stage all I did was smile at my family and look at them and just to see the smiles on their faces to see me. At the time that I got on stage, it truly sunk in that it was a real on to be on the stage and to see all of my classmates and their family and friends. When I did my speech that night I felt so confident about myself and my speech, that I was just so happy to say my speech.
      While writing my speech, I kept on telling myself that I wanted my speech to be remembered by all the people that was in the auditorium that night.  I wanted my speech to be perfect and I wanted to have the underclassmen’s to remember the speech. I wanted the speech to be one of the best speeches in Hughes history. Right now, the comments that I have been hearing about my speech, it has been a very successful speech. In addition, I felt that my speech didin’t exactly belong to me, but it belonged to the Class of 2010. That’s why I talked about what our class has been through and how we had over come theses changes as a class. Personally, as a Valedictorian of your class you should speak from your classes point of view because you represent your class and you should know how they feel. In addition, the speech is to your class.
      If I could go back to my graduation or high school period, I would do it in a heart beat. There are no words to describe walking out on to the floor, where your family and friends are cheering for you. In addition, there are no words to describe speaking to your classmates, friends, and family. No words. Just pure happiness, joy, and excitement. If I could go back in time for graduation, I would try to enjoy it more and soak everything in more.
      Some things that I have learned as being Valedictorian, is that your speech is your speech, you can say what ever you like to your class and don’t let others persuade you otherwise. In addition to being Valedictorian, don’t let your speech control you, enjoy being Valedictorian as long as you can possibly can. Being Valedictorian is a great tremendous honor but there also comes a lot of pressure and responsibility. As being top of your class you can and are expected to deal with the pressure or otherwise how did you even get on top any ways because you were obviously able to handle the responsibility of homework and school life. In the end, Valedictorians should feel proud of themselves and honored to have achieved this honor and to say their speech. When I have children I would tell my kids that I would want them to be top of their class but not necessarily be Valedictorian because of all the pressure and responsibility. I have now learned why the smartest person in the class needs to give the speech and it is because of the pressure that comes with it. To me no other person in the class could handle this pressure as good as the Valedictorian.