Five Attributes Leading to Success

Welcome President Fleegel, Superintendent Sullivan, Principal Lybert, Vice Principal Guden, school board members, faculty, family, friends, and, most importantly, the Class of 2023. Well the time is finally here. Our graduation is upon us. I remember back when I was in elementary school when I would complain about school, I’d sometimes hear “Well you only got about a decade left” or other sayings to that effect. I remember thinking “That’s longer than I have been alive, how will I last that long?” It’s surreal to think just how fast that time has gone by. To me it feels as though I have just started high school. Now, I stand before an assembly of my peers, their families, and other members of the community to give my graduation speech. Though subject to much procrastination, I worked hard to try and find a way to give a memorable and meaningful speech.

We are entering an odd stage between the twilight of childhood and the entering into adulthood. Even though we may have had a great time attending this school, we now forge ahead into the future. We have some very passionate, hard working, and intelligent individuals in our class. Some found great success in school, while others found their time here a bit more challenging. But we will no longer be held to the same measuring stick of success through standardized testing. We will be able to pursue our own passions and do what we desire. Only in doing what we desire can we see how much talent we have. When it comes to the real world, we finally have full control of what we become. We truly are the masters of our own destiny. Each person has some ability that they can harness to put themselves apart from others. It is up to you to find out what that skill is and to harness it for your benefit. The main thing that leads to success is that we have to be willing to face new challenges and push our limits. Many people live their lives in selfimposed chains and never figure out that they have the key. I fully believe that everyone here has the ability to do something impressive. We are the masters of our own destiny, and when we see that, we will be able to live our most fulfilling lives. With that being said, there are also some steps we can employ to help us become successful. I will go over the five I deem the most important.

First is to find your own definition for success - It is your life, so why live by what society expects out of you to be successful and not prioritize what you believe in? If you pursue something that is out of the ordinary, people will likely criticize you for it. Don’t let others define what makes you successful. Chasing someone else’s dream will never satisfy you. Remember you live for yourself first and foremost. You also only get to live one life. Make sure in that life you were able to find something fulfilling, and try to find it as soon as possible because you don’t know how long you are going to have to find it. Once you do find it, pursue it. Be a good steward toward yourself and do what you deem would make you a successful person, because in that you will find your meaning and in that meaning, your purpose. Keep good friends - You become a manifestation of the people that you spend the most time around. I always say you are the company you keep. That must mean I have spent time around some of the coolest people on Earth. Have you ever caught yourself using a saying that your friend always uses, find yourself miserable after spending time with miserable people, or found yourself finding some of the same interests as your friends? When we look to those moments, they are the easiest examples to see how who we hang around affects who we become. If you start to hang around people who are positive and kind to you, it is almost guaranteed that you will be a kinder and more happy person.

Strong mutual friendships are beneficial to both parties. Good, positive friends help you improve your life and you can help improve theirs.

You become what you believe you are, hold a high opinion of yourself. There is a quote by the onetime Roman Emperor Marcus Aeralius where he says “The Happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” I know this sounds like some sort of uninspired self help you might find in a bargain bin book at Walmart, but it is surprisingly powerful. Something surprising in psychology is that when we think something enough it becomes something we truly believe. The beliefs we hold about ourselves are self fulfilling. So when all you think about is your failures, why should it be surprising when it is almost impossible for you to find success. If you feed your negative thoughts, they will grow stronger and more persistent, and the same is true for positive thoughts. You cannot always control your thinking and there will be times where you will feel negative emotions and you will start to develop a negative outlook. You cannot keep these thoughts from crossing your mind, but you can control whether they are the ones you pay attention to. Your mind is your most powerful asset, so try to use it for your own good as much as you can.

Fortitude - A culture of instant gratification, I believe, has had an influence on people being less willing to stick with something when they have to face adversity. It is now deemed as easier to just quit, so there is no point to stick with something. Whether it be a difficult class, a sport where you are struggling, or trying to do impossible calculus homework, I always found the idea of quitting as causing me a feeling of some sort of emptiness. A feeling that I put in effort that was all for not. There is often a reward for seeing something through, but there is never one for giving up. The best way I found to adopt this is through a mindset absent of the idea of failure. Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed, I have found 10,000 ways that do not work.” Failure openly happens when we resign ourselves to it. Trial and error builds us up. The more times we fail, the straighter the road to success becomes.

Lastly is gratitude - The time I spent at Medford High was quite a treat. I had the pleasure of having some great teachers throughout the years. “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” -Cicero. Everyone should try to be more gracious for what they have. Gratitude helps us look at life from a more positive perspective, helping us see just how much we have. Being gracious for what you have makes everything you have mean more to you. Your friendships, your possessions, and your family time will all mean more if you take time to appreciate them. Gratitude also ties into the positive mindset I talked about earlier. A gracious person becomes happier and is also much more enjoyable to be around than someone who is always wishing for more, and does not find joy in what they have.

As I end this speech I realize how powerful a moment we are in right now. We stand before many people we have spent great amounts of time with. Friends, acquaintances, and daily passersby all the same will drift away. We may stay good friends with some, but many will end up on our periphery and still many others all but forgotten. But now is not the time for such existential thought. We have just completed one of our greatest milestones to date, so why quickly look back when there is still so much ahead? There is a saying that goes “Those who dwell on the past will end up depressed, and those who only look toward the future will be anxious, but those who live in the present are able to live life as it is.” Take the time to savor this moment a little. Breath ein the air, take everything in, good and bad all the same, this is not the time to look back with remorse or nostalgia or the time to worry about the future. Now is the time to form memories of this great experience because these memories may someday be all we have.

— Gavin Fuchs