This graduating class of 2022 has probably had one of the most difficult high school experiences I’ve ever seen. 

Your sophomore year was interrupted, your junior year was obliterated, and your senior year was fragmented and often filled with uncertainty. You’ve known loss and fear. You’ve had terrible illnesses in your families, and have been ill yourself. Motivation and drive has often been very hard to come by. It’s safe to say that life has thrown everything at you in a way that can feel exhausting, but you’ve fought through to the end.

There’s a saying that “courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s triumph over it.” I say the same applies to crossing that finish line to graduation. You may have stumbled, you may have fallen down, and you may have needed a friend to drag you across. Your success is not the absence of failure or struggle; it’s action and perseverance to triumph in spite of it. 

If this high school experience left you roughed up, hold your head in pride. Envision yourself a warrior at the end of a long, hard fight. In the words of the poem “Invictus,” your “head is bloody but unbowed.” 

Move forward with knowledge that you can always reinvent yourself and create a new, glorious life. You can be whoever you need to be. Help others on the way; always remember to reach back for those you pass in your success. Believe in yourself and never let setbacks keep you from moving forward.