My Graduation Speech!

Today was my highschool graduation! It went very well! I have posted my speech and some pictures. My speech went very well. I am usually nervous, but thanks to the prayers of my friends and family, I wasn't nervous hardly at all and I spoke clearly and slowly without looking petrified!

A picture of my lovely dress...

My table decorations...

And the food!

I didn't take any of the pictures, being busy graduating...

so I owe the photo credits to my Mom and my guests. 

More pictures coming later!

Here is my graduation speech!

Thank you all for coming, I am so glad you could all be here.

When I was learning the alphabet and learning to write the letters, I had a few select letters that I believed were completely unnecessary. I think they were w, x, y, and z. I didn't use those particular letters for anything important and so I thought they were unnecessary and didn't want to learn them. Of course now I know they are very important. In the last few sentences I used them fifteen times.
When I reached around fifth grade, I granted that those letters were necessary. But by then I had learned how to diagram complex sentences and I did not enjoy it. I didn't see any use in diagramming sentences and I did not want to do it. But I had to do it and I managed to get through diagramming.
When I got to algebra it was even worse. I held firmly to the belief that Math was entirely unnecessary. My Mom told me many times that Math was very important in life and she would remind me that I used math to sew and bake. So I granted that Math was not entirely unnecessary. Whatever Math I had learned in the past was useful, but whatever I hadn't learned yet was unnecessary and I had no use for it. The culmination point was one day when I opened my Algebra book and turned to my lesson for the day. I could not believe my eyes when I read the title. It said, "Imaginary Numbers". I had evidence right before me that Math was not useful. How can something imaginary be of any use whatsoever?
But through all that I learned to persevere through difficult situations. I did like my school. I always loved reading, history, and the sections of my English books that were about poetry and creative writing. Science was always fun as well, as some of you may remember was evidenced by the museum in our back yard. Although I had to persevere, and school was challenging, I am so thankful for God's provision and the way He worked things out along the way.
I will never stop learning. All of life is school. Not all of life is quadratic equations and imaginary numbers, but there will always be parts of life that we don't like. We just have to trust in God and persevere and He will grant us success. 

Success is relative. When you are standing on the sidewalk watching a car drive by, it looks like the car is moving, but if you're the one in the car, it appears as if the sidewalk is moving. It is the same thing with success. Success is measured by the goal. To some people, success would be having a big house and lots of money. To other people success would be earning a scholarship to medical school or being accepted to NASA. It all depends on who you are trying to please and who you are measuring yourself by.
When I was little, I was going to be a scientist when I grew up. To me a scientist was like being a doctor. It was a highly respected position that only really intelligent people could get into. I meant everyone to talk about how smart I was and to see for themselves how great homeschooling is.
Since then I have come to see what success truly is. I wanted to succeed in the world's eyes. I know now for certain that I would not have enjoyed being a scientist. One reason is that science is closely intertwined with math.
My main goal in life should not be to succeed in the eyes of other people. If I know that I have done what is right before God, then I will have succeeded in life. As long as I am obeying God and walking in His ways, I don't need to be a doctor or a scientist or an engineer. True success is only attained by doing well in God's eyes. I have come to see that it doesn't matter if I succeed in the world's eyes, but in God's eyes, and that is my vision for the future.