Abilene ISD celebrated the Abilene High School Class of 2024 during a graduation ceremony at Shotwell Stadium Friday, May 24 at 8 p.m. Congratulations, graduates!
Click here to view a photo gallery from the event.
Continue reading for the moving speeches delivered by Valedictorian Belle Marz and Salutatorian Sydney Spell.
Valedictorian Speech
Before I begin, I would like to take a moment to thank the people that have helped me along the way. On behalf of the class of 2024, I would like to thank the wonderful set of faculty and staff at Abilene High. You guys are amazing and we are all immensely grateful for your care and hard work.
Thank you to the group of teachers and mentors that have supported me throughout my journey so far. To those who taught me how to love learning. I have always found fulfillment in the pursuit of knowledge, but you helped me find my passion for learning new things and encouraged me to boldly explore my interests. You have inspired me to be kind and love fully.
Thank you to the friends and family that have been there to support, love, and encourage us throughout the years. As Meredith Grey says, “If there’s an upside to free-falling, it’s the chance you give your friends to catch you.” So, thank you to the amazing people who so graciously helped me in my times of need.
To my wonderful group of friends, thank you for making highschool more than just academics. Thank you for all of the laughs, tears, and inside jokes.
And to my family. My mom, Lainey, Ace, Gus. My beloved grandparents, or as I call them, MeMe and Geeze. I wouldn’t be up here on this stage without you. Growing up with a single mother is hard, so I thank you all for your collective support and care. I love you all so very much, so thanks for putting up with me for all of these years.
And to all of you, thank you for all that you do and for making me believe that I am capable of anything I set my mind to.
Now, I would like to address my fellow graduates. We did it! Now is the time to celebrate all that you have achieved. You should be so proud of what this day commemorates. However, I am also experiencing this strange feeling of excitement and terror at what comes next. It’s time to step up and take control of my life, but it feels like I’m a little unprepared. Now, I know many of you may also be experiencing this. I don’t have all of the answers and I won’t claim to know which path is best to take, but I hope to offer up some thoughts that will hopefully apply to-and maybe even help you along- your journey.
“We spend our whole lives worrying about the future, planning for the future, trying to predict the future, as if figuring it out will cushion the blow. But the future is always changing. The future is the home of our deepest fears and wildest hopes. But one thing is certain when it finally reveals itself. The future is never the way we imagined it.”
Knowing exactly what will happen in the future is impossible. What’s more important is making sure that you’re taking the time to genuinely enjoy life by filling it with the things that you love. We can’t let our fear of the unknown destroy the potential the future holds. It’s better to trust that you will end up where you need to be than worry so much you never leave where you are. It is better to trust that everything will be okay than to worry so much you never give life the chance to actually be okay. There is so much more to life than fear. Focus on those passions and dreams and hopes and memories and good relationships. Remember these good moments as you go forward. You don’t need to see where you are going, you just need to know where you have been and where you are right now.
So what should we look for in the now? You look for new. To quote Meredith Grey, “Who gets to determine when the old ends and the new begins? It’s not a day on a calendar. Not a birthday, not a new year. It’s an event, big or small, something that changes us. Ideally it gives us hope. A new way of living and looking at the world. Letting go of old habits, old memories. What’s important is that we never stop believing, we can have a new beginning. But it’s also important to remember that amid all the crap are a few things really worth holding on to.”
Now, graduation may be your event. It may change you. Significantly. But it also may not be your event. It may not change you at all. And that’s okay too. As we set forth, it is our job to find our moments. Our job is to make new memories and live life to its fullest. Your “new” will begin when it is meant to. Life is scary and there’s a lot that we don’t know, but that’s also what makes life so exciting. We get to live everyday not knowing what is going to happen next. As the new in your life comes, so will the new in you. Take the time to discover new parts of yourself. Take the time to explore the world and your own mind. T.S. Eliot once wrote in his poem “Little Gidding,” “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
These new moments will only bring you closer to who you truly are. So, live your life intentionally and continue to be excited for whatever comes next.
Whenever I think of my fellow graduates moving on, I am constantly drawn back to a short monologue from David Fincher’s 2008 film, the Curious Case of Benjamin Button: “For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, [so] stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. [and] If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”
Like me, many of you may feel that you are not prepared to get older. Many of you do not want to leave the safety of your current life. Believe me, growing up is difficult and scary and it can be overwhelming at times. Despite this feeling, you are fully equipped for the future. It may feel like you need more time, but I assure you that you don’t. Every moment, every experience that has led up to this point has prepared you for the journey ahead. Yes, it seems like there are times that it would just be easier to give up. But in these difficult times, remember that you have the power to choose. You each have the choice to persevere. Each and every one of you deserves to keep going. You owe it to yourself to pursue your dreams and be successful, however you choose to define that.
Thank you for your time.
Salutatorian Speech
Good evening, fellow graduates, family, and friends. I would first like to thank the people who have gotten the Abilene High Class of 2024 to this moment. Thank you to all the parents, guardians, and other family members that have supported us through the last 13 years of school. Thank you to the friends and mentors that have taught us the life lessons we never knew we needed and ensured that we made it to this day. Lastly, thank you to the teachers and staff at Abilene High that pushed each and everyone of us to the finish line.
At this very moment, as we are today, we are on the precipice of something great. Today, we have the choice to either make the last four years the best of our lives or we can choose to make them the start. We can choose to dwell on all the things we are losing in the process of graduating: our friends, the routine we have taken part in for the past 13 years, Abilene itself, or we can choose to focus on the good things that we have gained that will allow us to move on and forward. This summer will be the first time this choice is presented to us. Do we mourn the loss of high school or do we look to the future and live? This summer I urge the Class of 2024 to live. To do all of the things. Take the day trip, watch the movie, invite your friends over, it doesn’t matter what it is, just so long as you live and enjoy it. But don’t forget. Don’t let the change allow you to forget the memories that you have made here. The memories that were good and bad, but important nonetheless. So live your life this summer and do all the things knowing that this is one of the last times that we will be able to just be, but don’t let yourself forget the people and the memories that have shaped you, the people that you can’t help but think “You made me who I am.”
No matter where we all end up in life, the Class of 2024 started here at Abilene High and graduated together. This is where we learned our educational requirements, but also the skills and qualities of a good person. We learned the skills that will take us far in life and that make us the people we are. Despite that, we are all incredibly different. We have different goals, qualities, and aspirations. All of us are on different paths of life starting now. We will all branch off and go in different directions, some to college, some to trade school, some into the workforce, but we all started here. Every single one of us has something different to offer to the world and each one is equally important. Francis Chan once said that “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” It doesn’t matter that each of our paths is different or even what your specific path is. Just that in whatever you do, you do it because it matters. Furthermore, try it all. There is no shame in failing because that just means that you attempted to find something that mattered. Don’t let anything hold you back from the things that you want to experience and pursue because you never know what could be the thing that truly matters. In the words of Natasha Bedingfield, “Feel the rain on your skin. No one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in.” You are the only one that can find the things that matter in your life and this can only be done through opening yourself up and allowing everything in.
As we go off into the world and go in all different directions we will experience a big change. We have grown used to the routine of Abilene and it will be hard to change our day to day lives, but we will be okay. I’ve found myself thinking more and more lately “But it feels a little like I’m not quite ready for this change.” Despite this, we have to embrace this change. We are about to begin the rest of our lives and that cannot occur without the embracing of the new and the careful holding of the old. The new will not have meaning without the reflection of the old. In the wise words of Harold Hill, “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.” We are embarking on the beginning of the rest of our lives; we must live and soak it up: all the memories, experiences, and relationships. Don’t miss out on all the good things happening around you just because the change is hard, and allow the new things to shape you in the same way the old always has. Soak up every bit of life that you can because life is too short to not do all the things and thoroughly enjoy every second of it. Simply put, in all you do, don’t hold back, don’t wait for the night to end.
