Class of 2K5, Uninspiring.

I happened upon a High School Graduation this weekend and was nearly deafened by senior rhetoric. My ears were sadly disappointed at nonsense spewed by the valedictorian and salutatorian of a particular high school in DPS. Maybe my standards were set too high, or maybe I was just expecting more substance from two females who should be promising to be the strong, confident leaders for future of America.

Instead graduates and attendees at the Denver Convention Center Auditorium were treated to what I could only speculate were excerpts from an anime cartoon like Pokemon or Dragonball Z. The creme de la creme femme pupils alternated speaking high-pitched, squeaky sentences during their joint speech. It's odd they chose to combine their moment, instead of doing two separate, custom speeches. I found interesting but mostly ineffective. They failed to capture anyone's attention for more than a minute. The speech was uninspiring, bland and didn't even contain a real message to the audience. Allow me to emulate:

Valedictorian: Follow your dreams.
Salutatorian: Be all you can be.
V: Never forget your friends.
S: Remember all the fun times we had.
V: Senior-itis hit us way too soon. Tee hee.
S: Tee hee. Yeay! Go 2005!

See? Useless. Why do I care? Because these young women had a captive audience of at least 600-700 people. They could have made an impact on people who looked up to them because of their prestigious title and accomplishment. Their message, had it been serious and strong enough, could have been retained by many. And that my friends, is very powerful.

Instead, the important messages were lost. In between senior screams and yelling, the school principal managed to say a few good words. Coincidentally, those were the words that needed to be heard. Words like, "I challenge you to make the right choice."

Aside from challenging young people (and all people) to have balance in their lives, this woman offered up one of the most important statements ever. It applies to everybody, not just pubescent high school kids. Think: when was the last time you had enough self control, willpower and discipline to make the right choice about anything? How often will you have the opportunity to make the right choices? How about every single day.

Try putting that message in the back of your head for good measure. Making a conscious effort to make the right choice would get so many of us out of all the shit we're in.

It's true. I'm no speech writer, but feel free to put that in your blog and post it. Or, if you prefer, in your pipe and smoke it.