Class of 2003
Graduation Speeches 		Click here for info about WKCD's 2005 Graduation Speech Contest

    Seems not too long ago, all of us [were] in our class t-shirts, screaming “03” for the first time. Now we scream “03” for the last time. A lot of us will move on to college screaming “07”or “08.” Some will move on to enter the work force, screaming for a raise. Others will go on a year’s hiatus, screaming at their parents. Whichever way you may go, a lot of us, if not all of us, will stop screaming and start listening, listening to reality because this is just the beginning...
    — Kim, 18, Riverdale, MD
udging from the graduation speeches submitted to WKCD from students all across the country, members of the Class of 2003 have similar thoughts in mind this spring as they celebrate their high school graduation. Many, like Kim, reflect on the dual nature of this rite of passage as both an ending and a new beginning. Others take advantage of the opportunity not just to peer forward but to pause and look back:

    As a child, I loved blowing bubbles. I still do. But today, as we celebrate growing up, we pack our childhood away in boxes. We are moving on to grander things. I have been looking forward to this for years. Now that I am here, I find myself looking at the past... After you pack up your childhood, I hope you remember to take it out sometimes. We need to remember where we came from.
    — Sarah, 17, Gilbert, SC
Yet others note that the value of high school includes more than knowledge of literature and algebra, and more than college acceptances, athletic feats, or musical performances.
    All of us know a little something about quadratic equations, how to write the perfect English essay, or the causes of the Revolutionary War. Our most important lessons, however, cannot be recited or written down and turned in for a grade. These lessons I’m speaking of involve friendship, hard work, love, and dedication.
    — Amanda, 17, Grundy, VA
And appropriately, several take note of graduation not as a final destination but as a rest stop on a longer journey. For many the trip is the first one to be plotted not by parents or teachers but by emerging adults. As Kelly, a 17-year old from Columbus, Nebraska, urges: “It is time to throw the map out the window and follow your heart and dreams.”

Even so, when the inevitable bumps rise in the road, 18-year-old Mark from New Hill, North Carolina wisely advises, “Never be afraid to stop, get out, and call someone for directions.”

Click below for WKCD’s collection of 2003 graduation speeches.

See also graduation speeches from the class of 2000


Andrew Gonzales, 18
Northglenn High School, Broomfield, Colorado

I want you to be honest with yourselves. When your cute little teenage faces and bodies curdle into ugly lumps of fat, admit it. Don’t go on Jerry Springer and whistle through the gap in your teeth that you are sexy. When your hair flies south for the winter of your life, please, please don’t grow out the sides and comb it over. Nobody will believe that you have hair.

What I’m saying may seem pessimistic, but the important part of this honesty lesson is humor. Don’t succumb to the awesome power of your baldness—laugh at it. Polish your head and strut that shiny bulb around with pride.

Click here for the full speech.


Alicia Janos, 18
Northwest High School, Darnestown, Maryland

As seniors, we’re awesome, there are none who compare, We have wit, humor, charm, looks, and class. Four years of work, winning, whining, and wrath, Are part of our glorious past!

Now we have deeper issues we like to discuss, But now far removed from school. "Did you see who won American Idol?" "My college has an Olympic-sized pool!"

Click here for the full speech.


Chris Nguon, 18
McClymonds High School, Oakland, California

Two years ago, people wondered why I was coming out for the basketball team... To them, what they saw was a skinny, weak, little 5-foot-5 Chinese kid without a lick of athleticism. So they figured I would never make it. But you see to me, it wasn’t a cut and dry case. To me, it was all poetry. Poetry. Like how Bill Russell slapped opponents’ shots when they tried to get him; or like how Zazu Byrd drives baseline and dunks on fools; or like how Paul Silas took his 1960 McClymonds team to the TOC championship. Poetry... Poetry. It’s all around us. Everywhere we turn, everywhere we look, everywhere we sit, everywhere we walk, it’s here. Right here.

Click here for the full speech.


Natalie Roberts, 17
McNeil High School, Austin, Texas

First, in [an] attempt to take the advice to include a symbolic quote, it became quite clear that no matter what, life is an endless stream of contradictions and inconsistencies. You see, they tell us that “haste makes waste,” but then, “the early bird gets the worm.” And “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can get done today,” but we’re supposed to “stop and smell the roses”? When do we have time to smell the roses when we’re busy doing everything today? And how do you “shoot for the moon” when you are being told to “wish upon a star”?

Click here for the full speech.


Stacy Tolos, 18
Sycamore High School, Cincinnati, Ohio

Lessons we all learned in high school:
1. The best bathrooms are the ones near the main office.
2. The words “don’t ever tell this to anyone” don’t mean anything, to anyone.
3. Procrastination works.
4. When teachers say your paper only has to be as long as it takes to explain your point, they are lying.

Click here for the full speech.



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