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Blake delivered the following speech to his Valley Christian
High School graduating class of 2006.
It's over. A million tasks, a million laughs, a million memories...we dance our last dance-my first-take our final round of finals. And suddenly it's over. Suddenly I find myself staring at the blank page upon which I must unfold my last words to the class of 2006.
Wait...no it can't be. I was just getting good at this, just starting to really make a difference. I never got to do half those dreams, never got to write half those songs, never got to say half those thousand things I wanted to say.
No, no it can't be...over? It feels like yesterday, just yesterday, we were sharing our first laugh. It was yesterday, just yesterday, that I was looking at that first page before me... yesterday when I was sitting in Queen Fairchild's class with that first writing assignment: describe one of the students sitting in that ring of desks. My eyes swept the circle, alighting upon various faces. My old friend that'd followed me to this school sat not far to my left. Most of the faces were unknown, though. There was a redheaded mop of a lad sitting over there. He'd already started working, off to the first of his five million A+'s. I studied the faces, reveling in the mystery of each one's potential. Which would be friends to stick through thick and thin? Which would just be funny to watch?
Time passed. The faces took on names, personalities you could fill books with...and the mysteries unfolded, bursting like fireworks into new possibilities...determination and skill, the inspiring example of our teachers, dreams we shared together, plans to make a difference...all swept up in the swirling dance of laughter and tears, joy and sorrow...but above all the magic of friendship...as God took all the myriad threads and wove them together into the tapestry that is high school. And as I look back over its broad and majestic expanse my breath is taken away. I can only stand here in awe...stand here and say what I've said once or twice before marveling at a few of these. "That was amazing."
And you want me to capture it in a five-minute speech? How could I possibly chronicle all that in five minutes...five minutes that must be half gone by now?
Oh, I'm going to miss this place where heroes walked. There's a magic about that hill, especially after hours. I've wandered about it many a time, pondering, chatting with friends and teachers, waiting for ballgames and the like. I've watched the sun set over this place, watched the vibrant yellows and greens fade to a wistful blue, and already I could feel it...that deep, moving nostalgia. 'Twas my first little whiff of what I'd be feeling as I stood right here.
My time draws short. Four years...five minutes...never was very good with word limits...but even a 400-page novel couldn't quite say it all. And yet, there's something on the first page of that novel, in the dedication, that just might.
"To the friends
Who were here to watch
The Birth of Terralax"
Because in these last four years we have dreamed and fought and laughed and cried, learned, lived and loved together, and there is not on the face of this earth a group of such excellent and admirable people I would rather have done this with.
I imagine there are a few among you who like me are afraid of what lies ahead, of the journey out of this holy haven into the wide world. As a
friend once told me, "A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are for." You and I...we have dreams to fight for, people that need someone to believe in them, that need an example of character, heroism, of someone working for a higher cause than the mundane progression of meaningless days. We have a God to show them...in our colleges, in our workplaces, in our accomplishments, in our integrity and honor down to the smallest elements of the way we talk, walk...even breathe. And then we finally lend meaning to the words "quest for excellence." You and I and God...we have a world to save.
And so my friends I beseech thee, keep your gaze fixed on that horizon with bold dreams and bright hopes, eyes shining with the light of that New Dawn. Stay true to your ideals, your principles and the God who shapes them. In your deeds, lend life the luster that makes it more than ordinary, that inspires-as several of you have inspired me. Fight for dreams, for the good still left in this world. And remember always that you are not alone. No matter where you are bound, whether you have friends going with you or not, you have the most powerful person in the universe standing right beside you. And as He stands beside me now I give you my final challenge: My friends, live lives that shine in shadow, that give people hope of something greater. This world will not be the same when we are done with it.
So goodbye, Valley Christian. It has not been Heaven spending the last four years with all of you, but doing so has given me a glimpse of what that place must be like. And so goodbye, good luck, God bless, farewell...and fly true. For one lone knight, this has truly been an honor.
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