For the Love of Competition

Good evening everyone and welcome to the graduation ceremony of the class of 2022. My fellow graduates and I would like to welcome the administration, school board members, staff, students, family, and friends to this joyous celebration. WE finally DID IT!! A huge thank you to everyone who helped us along the way.

If you know me, you probably know that I am a pretty competitive person. Competition is a wonderful thing. It pushes you to be your best and makes you want to succeed. Since we were little kids in elementary school I think we can all agree that a lot of things have changed. But one thing has remained constant, our competitive nature as a class. I’m pretty sure that any teacher we’ve had throughout the years would tell you just how competitive we were. We were constantly told “it’s just a game” or “it doesn’t matter who wins,” but to us it did.

In elementary school it was competing to be the fastest kid in gym class, reading the most books, or being the king of the hill at recess.

Fast forward to high school and the competition got really serious. As a class, we never wanted to be outdone at homecoming and always made sure our school spirit was known. We also continued to compete against one another. We competed for the best grades, the spot on the basketball team, for the solo in choir, or for being the best at Blooket or Kahoot (which often ended with us being told we were way too loud) all to just win a juice box or a sticker. It was through our competitiveness we all found something we are truly passionate about whether it is sports, band, choir, art, forensics, student council or any other interests.

I believe that competition has taught us lots of lessons throughout high school. It has pushed us to be the best versions of ourselves, while also helping everyone around us to succeed. Competing against and with one another for the past 13 years has helped shape me into the person I am today and is something that I will forever cherish. Even though we’ve been competitive we’ve also made some pretty amazing friendships. Friendships that I hope will last a lifetime.

So as your friend and not a competitor, I challenge you all to stay competitive for the rest of your life. Chase your dreams and don’t let anyone stand in your way. Keep your competitive spirit in you as that will push you to succeed in whatever you do. I wish you all nothing but the best, and thank you for competing with me. Thank you. In the spirit of competition, I also want to remind all of you…I was the FIRST to speak at our graduation. — Molly Heiser-Salutatorian