Alina was here

Elementary school, middle school, and now high school. Time travels so fast, and we are finally moving on. We have climbed, step-by-step, up the mountain of success. We have struggled to achieve our goals and appear here, graduating from Oak Valley as successful eighth graders. We are ready to take on the responsibilities of high school students and continue being successful. Each step is a step to our dreams, a step to our goals, a step to our future.
Rising to success is like a hike up a mountain, with the summit as our goal. When we reach the top, we have reached our goal. Some of us have college goals, and some of our goals may be simply to be happy. The higher we are, the harder it is to keep going, but look at us here. We have climbed, and climbed, and climbed. There have been obstacles, some that were easy to step over, and some that required struggling in order to overcome it. You, the 2009 eighth grade class, have conquered the obstacles in the past. Now look ahead, to the future. There are even more obstacles. They will be tough challenges, and they will be difficult. They may seem impossible, but nothing is, when you have the courage to try, when you have the perseverance to keep trying, and when you have the confidence to know that you can do it. Nothing can stop you. Know that you have been given a life, and with it comes dreams, so live your life, and live your dreams.
When I first entered middle school, I had no idea how it was going to be like. Some people had older siblings, and could depend on them for middle school advice. I had to depend on my friends as my older siblings. I always felt as if my personality was a year or two younger than my actual age, so I looked up to my friends as older brothers and sisters. Middle school was very much different from elementary school. Elementary classes were slow, boring, and easy. In this new class, my fellow classmates all valued education, all wanted to go to college, and all dreamed of success. They were straight-A students. Competition stood before me. Before, I was the top student in my class. I had to do more work to just to stay average. I was no longer the person everyone asked for help on homework, and I no longer stood out. I became the one asking others for help. Once I brought home a D+ on a science test. My parents were totally ticked off, and gave me a huge lecture on the importance of tests in middle school. That D+ dropped my grade from an A to a B. I believed I had disappointed my parents for life, but they forgave me. Instead of punishing me, they found a way to improve my grade. They bought me books and found websites to help with my class. For every test that my teachers returned to me, my parents made me do all the corrections, and understand why and how I got it wrong. My grade gradually improved, and by the end of the trimester, I had gotten back on track with an A. By learning from my mistakes, I changed my failure to a success. I learned that a small stumble up my mountain of success could be fatal, but if I had the heart to change it, then I could be successful.
Success. What is success? Success is the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted. We all want to accomplish the task of getting something we want. We all want to be successful. Success boosts our confidence, strengthens our hopes, and encourages us to keep on going. Without success, we would be living in a pandemonium of depression. No one is happy when something they attempted doesn’t work. No one likes seeing an F on his or her report card. No one likes being a failure. One of my favorite quotes by Ben Sweetland is, “success is a journey, not a destination.” The meaning of this quote is that not only do you need to set goals, you also need to plan on how to achieve those goals. Such a plan can be anything. My plan is to always learn from my mistakes. If you know your mistakes, know how you got in wrong, and remember those mistakes, chances are, you will not make the same mistake again. Mistakes are a large barrier between yourselves and success. Success is not easy. It is not just a point. It is a line connection you to that point. It is a path that you have to pave for yourself, with barriers blocking your way. You cannot follow someone else to create your success. You create it yourself. You manage your life—you learn from your mistakes—and you can be successful.
We all gather here today, graduating the eighth grade. We have overcome the obstacles so far, but there are more ahead. We graduate Oak Valley as people of character, as people of integrity, and most importantly, we are people of success. Thank you parents, teacher, Mrs. Wrisley, and friends. Without your support and your advice, we would not have gotten this far. We can leave Oak Valley this year, knowing we are successful.