Andy Hahn’s Salutatorian Speech
Mount Juliet High School Graduation
May 29, 2007

Welcome fellow graduates, parents, friends, and faculty to the commencement ceremony for the Graduation of the Class of 2007. This is a day that we have anxiously looked forward to since we began our education. Graduation is where our past and futures collide in front of us at one moment of revelation and insight. We have persevered through thirteen years of school to earn this one sheet of paper that will give us access to opportunities we have only dreamed of so far. As soon as we were born, many of parents and grandparents looked towards our Graduation as one of the great milestones of our lives together. Even though in reality graduation is just a long, dull ceremony, to our parents it symbolizes the reward for all the efforts that they have put into our lives. From taking us to sporting events to reading us books as young children, it has been our families that have been the constant in our young lives. Throughout our time spent in high school, we could not wait for the monotony and stress of school to finally come to a conclusion and have the opportunity to live independent lives and strive for the goals and dreams of our childhood. However, now that the time has arrived for us to move on, we begin to look back on how we will always have our memories of the faculty and friends from Mt. Juliet High School. We will always remember the school spirit and pride that Mr. Brown brought to our school and the five words that he has made famous. We will also never forget the dress code and the annoyance that having our shirts tucked in and pants pulled up has constantly provided. Who will ever be able to forget that one teacher who inspired us and pushed us to our conceived limits only for us to discover that we were capable of so much more, or that one class that revealed to us for the first time the subject that will consume the rest our lives? High school is also a time of friendships; it is when we make the best friends and mischievous memories that will stay with us for the rest our lives. Graduation, however, is not only a time for reminiscing on the past, but also a time to look toward the future and what lies ahead for us. While Graduation, in one aspect, is the conclusion to the main stage of our young lives it is also the opening of a door filled with new opportunities and people. One of the architects of the great country we live in, Thomas Jefferson, once said that, “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on Earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude”. The education that we received at Mt. Juliet High School has given us the proper preparation to succeed in whatever path we wish to pursue. Now that we have developed the proper foundation for success from our teachers and families, we can apply the mental attitude that Thomas Jefferson speaks of to achieve the dreams of our childhood. I will leave everyone with a quote by Mark Twain to remember throughout the upcoming journeys of our lives, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”