RMHS Graduation 2024
Good evening and congratulations to the class of 2024! It is an honor to address you all here today as we celebrate the end of our high school journey and the beginning of a new chapter in our lives.
I have always been the kind of person that wanted to do everything. Throughout my life I’ve tried just about every single hobby and activity you can imagine. When I didn’t have something that challenged me, I would challenge myself by filling every moment of my life with something else to do. And that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy all of the things I was doing, but I pulled myself in every direction in the hopes of finding something that I was really invested in.
By the time I got to high school I joined almost every club that looked even slightly interesting to me, and ended up spending most of my time in that building. I found myself eating dinners at the tables on Main Street instead of at my kitchen table.
Through all of this I found so many things I could enjoy. But I had no idea what I was passionate about. What I wanted to do with my life. Who I wanted to be. I would constantly have new dreams for my life, and I could never settle on one of those ideas. I spent so much of my time pondering those questions as well. Because every time someone asked me I would freeze up and have no idea how to answer. I didn’t know what the right answer to those kinds of questions was. And I had no idea how to find out either.
And the idea of committing to just one of those things I enjoyed scared me. But, one of the most important things I have learned in high school is that you can’t do everything. I have spent my whole life pushing myself to take all of the hardest classes and stressing over my grades, on top of spending all of my time in dozens of extracurriculars, all while trying to balance time to spend with my friends and family. When you’re trying to do so many things there has to be something that gives. Most of the time for me, it was sleep.
The last year I have spent a lot of time choosing what I want to prioritize, and what is the most important to me. Because, over the course of my high school career, I’ve realized that life is not about doing as much as possible, but cherishing the moments that make life special. True joy comes from finding the parts of life that mean the most to each of us.
As you all take your next steps in life, I encourage you to look back on your four years at RMHS not as an ending but as a new beginning. Each of us will have many opportunities to choose how we want to live our lives and spend our time, and though we will all miss the friends we made and the activities we enjoyed, I encourage all of you to focus on the things that have brought you the most joy in your time here.
Thank you to all the teachers who have ever helped a student find something they’re passionate about at school. As cliche as it sounds: we truly couldn’t do it without you. And thank you to all of the families. Without your support we never could have made it to this momentous occasion. Today we celebrate our accomplishments, but also the role our families played in each one.
Congratulations to the class of 2024!
