Completing high school, college or graduate school means that you have mastered the school's curriculum. Though some subjects might have come easily, others likely were more difficult. Use the difficulties you overcame to graduate as the theme of your speech. These can be academic difficulties, social difficulties or an overall difficulty the school faced while you were there, such as the tragic death of a student. Speak about how you first recognized the difficulty and what steps you took to overcome it on your path to graduation.
Every day you attend school, you make memories. Think about times when you and your classmates bonded. This might have occurred in a school assignment, field trip or social function such as school sporting events or dances. Recount some of these experiences and speak about what made them special to you and your friends. Homecoming, sporting events, school concerts, club competitions, school theater and field trips are all examples of memories you and your classmates share.
Life is full of lessons that we learn every day. These lessons can be social lessons, such as how to treat people who are less fortunate, or educational lessons, such as how to solve a math equation. Think about some of the major lessons you learned as a student, and as a class together. For example, if you took a class trip to a foreign country, you might have learned to appreciate how the Unites States operates. The class might have discussed how the country's government differs from the U.S. government. As another example, if your class volunteered to help veterans, you might have learned how to truly respect the nation's veterans.
Graduation is the closing of one chapter in your life and the beginning of the next. Think about what the future may bring and where you and your classmates might be several years from now. Speaking to the hope and promise of the future will inspire your classmates and others in the audience to think about their own plans, dreams and what they want to accomplish in life.