Organize your thoughts. Think about your goals from the beginning of the GED program and how you achieved them to get where you are now. Think about the entire process involved–the academic rigor, the late-night study sessions and the friends you made who all shared the same goals and the same process.
Write all of these thoughts down and organize them into a chronological outline beginning with your initial goals. Expand on them until you reach the present.
Add to your outline what graduates should be thinking about for the future: post-secondary plans, college applications, more tests and entrance exams, job applications and so forth.
List audience members and include thoughts of thanks and gratitude to all family and faculty that contributed to your goals, accomplishments and dreams for the future.
Begin a first draft, pulling together all outline points. Expand on your outline points by filling them in with more detail until you have a first full draft.
Write a beginning that begins with a quote by someone famous, or a famous anonymous saying. For example: “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else” (Judy Garland), or “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are” (E.E. Cummings).
Write a conclusion that winds it all down, bringing everything full-circle.
Review your draft a minimum of two times and make editorial changes as you go. Read it aloud at least once to someone, making more changes after reading aloud.