Subject: Commons Themes in Graduation Speeches

One of the high schools in my district is having its graduation ceremony right now, and I'm watching a live stream of it. Currently, the class valedictorian is giving his speech. It's interesting to note that there seems to be several common themes within all of the graduation speeches I've heard:

- reminiscing over our childhood and comparing it to being in high school ("...remember when we were little and playing on the playground...")

- reminiscing over each of the past four years of high school ("...we were timid freshmen..." "...then we became wise sophomores..." etc...)

- recognizing a moment of surrealism in graduating ("...and now, here we are..."), ("...so ends an important chapter in our lives...")

- exaggerating the future accomplishments of each of the graduates ("...we will become doctors, lawyers, and maybe even president of the United States...")

- looking forward to the future ("...it's not the end, it is only the beginning..."), ("...and a new chapter of our lives is about to begin...")

- if the student making a speech happens to be particularly religious, expect his/her speech to be filled with any variation of "Praise the Lord!" or "God has blessed me..."

It's all the same, so much so that I tend to dread the graduation speeches because of their innate cheesiness and heavy use of cliches. God forbid there be a speech that is actually unique and realistic.  ::)