Valedictory

    I was the Valedictorian of my graduating class, so I figured I'd post my speech.  Here you go!





ValeVictory:

There are a lot of things that I have been

Which I can be no longer;

There are a lot of challenges I’ve overcome

And each has made me stronger.

“Away, away,” the world is calling,

The breeze rebirthing flame;

I go either to sepulchre,

Or glory; legend; fame.

Like flowers we have spent our lives

Bending toward the light

But now like eagles spread our wings

And hasten to find flight;

It hurts to tear our rooting up,

We struggle and we bleed,

And yet we try and try again

For we were never weeds

And our dreams are so much larger than our vascular mistakes

Thus we tear ourselves apart so we can piece ourselves together,

No longer fields of lilies but instead birds of every feather--

There are many things which we have been

Which we can be no longer;

We have been hurt and maimed and killed,

But each death has made us stronger.

So the world calls us away

At the shattering of day

And to answer is to know that we must leave our grief behind

And say goodbye to all we love as ourselves we seek to find.

There will be hunters we must fell

And prey that we must heal--

It’s never been enough to speak

When there was nothing there to feel

And to Roosevelt we owe no debt

Yet we take his words for real--

Yet speaking softly never helped a single bird to rise

So sing your heart out every time you protest some demise.  

But remember here your childhood,

It never really died--

It only faded to a whisper as it curled up inside

The roots which after flood and flame

Should be destroyed, yet still remain.

So there are things that we still are

Which we can be no longer

But there are things that we will be

And one of them is stronger.

Away, away, we fly today,

The eagle still a flower--

We count the months, the weeks, the minutes and the hour

For our minds are gone already from the place where we were born

A foot in this world and the next,

So happy--so forlorn.

From our tearing roots we fly,

Touching wingtips to the sky--

We beat the air with aching hearts,

As bittersweet and dulcettart

We cannot fight the truth--

(And friends, this I must remark,

With a very heavy heart)

With a victoriously vicious cry, sing--

“This is where we start!”

Friends--this. is where we part.