Graduation Speech

WAYZATA SENIORS - This is my graduation speech! I would love to speak in front of you at graduation and it would be such an honor if you chose my speech, so VOTE VOTE VOTE!

Four years ago, I walked into what I thought would be the beginning of the rest of my life. High school seemed like such a foreign and exciting concept at the time. We all had our own perceptions of high school that we had heard from siblings or neighbors. Most of you were probably excited to be going to high school. I was terrified. I thought I was going to be part of the freshman stereotype: shoved into lockers, jostled in the hallway, kicked out of my seat at lunch. But I wasn’t treated that way. Coming to the high school from a middle school outside of the district, I thought that I was going to be treated like an outsider, awkwardly glanced at because nobody was really sure who I was. But I wasn’t treated that way either. I thought that I was going to enter high school, clueless about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and leave high school with a clear path laid out for me.

 

Unfortunately, that’s not my case; but it is for some of you. Some of you have known what you’ve wanted to pursue in college since you were nine years old and you made up your mind to become a doctor from watching shows like Grey’s Anatomy and House, although I don’t know why you would be watching those shows at that age. Maybe you figured out you wanted to be a chemist because you made your paper maché volcano explode using baking soda and vinegar at your 8^th grade science fair. Or maybe you had written so many book reports that you figured you were supposed to become an English teacher. Some of you took Journalism and realized you wanted to be a journalist or a TV anchor from working on Newsbreak. Maybe you took woodshop or interior design classes and decided to become an architect. You could have joined DECA or BPA and ended up becoming really interested in business or economics. Maybe your left brain was intrigued by calculus so you’re majoring in math. Or maybe you fell in love with choir or became a band geek and you want to be a musician.

It’s impossible that we’ll all know what we want to do for the rest of our lives when we’ve only lived 18 of those years. I’m sure you’ve all had relatives or neighbors come up to you and ask “Where are you going next year? What do you want to do?” I don’t know about you all, but I have a mini panic attack anytime I get asked that question. What do you want to do? I don’t know, I’m not sure yet. But that’s okay, isn’t it?

 

As letters from college started to trickle in and everyone became stressed out, it occurred to me that the anxiety I had for acceptance-letter season was due partly to the fact that I was comparing myself to everybody else. Many of you knew what you were going to do and many of us don’t, but it’s not wrong if you don’t know what to do. Odds are, it’ll change. Over 50% of college students change their major, so that offers a little consolation. We all have our notions or predictions about what college is going to be like, or at least what we want it to be like. Go into college with your plan in mind, but don’t be surprised when those plans change. It’s wonderful that we have the opportunity to choose what we want to do. I don’t think we fully realize how powerful of a thing choice is. Embrace it and take full advantage of it. And even if you haven’t made a decision yet, that doesn’t mean your time in high school has been useless. Far from it. Wayzata has prepared us to face anything we want to conquer. You can pursue whatever you want because of the foundation of education we’ve been given. We’ve all become pretty smart. We’ll figure it out.

These decisions we’re facing feel pretty daunting but we need to remember that we aren’t confined to them. We aren’t always going to be restricted to our college major and we don’t have to be trapped in one job for eternity. Most of us are going to make and change and reverse many decisions in the next couple years once we explore more of the world and figure out what we actually want to do. It’s okay that our future isn’t mapped out for us because that’s part of life. We learn as we go and we pave our own way. We can thank everyone we’ve met for having some sort of influence on that path. Thank your parents, your friends, teachers, coaches, babysitters, cousins, whomever you’d like, but make sure you do thank them. They’ve made you who you are. So, Wayzata grads of 2013, prepare yourselves for some twists and turns and bumps along the way, but just know that no matter where life takes us, we’re ready for it.

 

-Meredith Ford

Spring Break 2012!!

That's the title of many an album that I've seen on Facebook with all of my friends in sunny places on the coasts, getting tan, throwing up the deuces, and what have you. Unfortunately, I'm not there. But I don't really like vacationing in warm places (I'm more of a London and New York person than Miami and LA) so I guess it's all for the best. I went on my own adventure this week, anyway.

It was college visit time for my mom and I. 5 colleges in 5 days. We figured that if we were going to be that far away from home, we might as well make our trip worth it. It was a great trip; I realized I have a lot of options out there for college. My mom and I weren't tired of each other by the end of it. 1749 miles. My butt was quite sore. Except it wasn't as sore as my dad's.

I feel so bad for my dad. He had to have surgery on Friday. For the second time in 8 months. When we were gone. His parents came down and so did his brother since we weren't there. And then he was supposed to get discharged yesterday, but the doctor never showed up. So Easter was pretty memorable for him, as was his birthday 'cuz that's when he had his other surgery.

I played my French horn at a church gig for Easter earlier today. 100 bucks coming my way. Nice.

Envy

Do you ever have those times when you find yourself glued to Facebook and think to yourself "I wish I had her/his life," while looking through someone's pictures and statuses and friends?

Sometimes I'm so envious of other people. Maybe not necessarily as extreme as wanting their life, though, because I do love my life and I'm so lucky to have been given the life I have. I'm sure we all have those times in school where we think "I wish I got his quiz score." There are times at the mall when we think "Oh, I wish I had her hair." There are times in the grocery store when we think "I wish I could eat the brownies in his cart instead of the carrots in mine."

I sometimes make lists of the pros and cons in my life.

Pros: I've been able to life a privileged life, my parents trust and respect me, I work hard and I do good work, I have many talents, I'm very unique, I have been given opportunities that most others have not been given, I have so many friends and a family who support me in all that I do and will pick me up whenever I need it, people around me hold high standards which makes me push myself to do my best, I'm happy and healthy, I'm very blessed materially, physically, mentally, and emotionally, I have great relationships with so many people in my life that I know will carry me on to a great future.
Cons: I'm a perfectionist, I'm self-depricating, I'm envious.

So I really shouldn't be envious of other people.

I have a great life.

Surprise!

My friends are the best.

Two of the things near the top of my bucket list are 1) throw a surprise party and 2) have a surprise party thrown for me. I've always thought the second one would be hard to achieve, considering that my friends may not know that I wanted a surprise party and then also persuading them into giving me a surprise party would have turned it into not a surprise at all. So I'm very glad that people just assumed I would like a surprise party!

Have I said surprise party enough?

SURPRISE PARTY!

I love surprises! And now I know I love surprise parties! Couldn't stop smiling all night. It's nice to know that so many of my friends care enough about me to put this together and keep it a secret for 2 whole months. But actually, I'm so surprised someone didn't accidentally say something to me. I wish I would have looked nicer, though. Thank you all!

On My Birthday...

This is the song I've been singing the whole day.

I'm cool, you know it.

Conflict

I don't like to fight.

I don't try to fight.

I don't need to fight.

Yet somehow I always end up fighting.

I want to stop.

But I can't.

Whole Foods Extravaganzas

I love Whole Foods.

Yeah, it may be one of the stereotypes that white people like but, in case you haven't noticed, I am white and I would probably still love going to Whole Foods even if I wasn't. Take that. It's become tradition to stop at the new Whole Foods that opened in Minnetonka down by Ridgedale every Saturday after I have MYS rehearsal (concert tomorrow at 6:30, y'all should come).

What a plethora of spectacular food items there are! I'm torn whenever we go there between getting my tried and true favorites or trying some new things that may eventually become a favorite. So many choices. So many good things. I love their Wild Mushroom Soup and their Vegetable Lasagna and Vegetable Quesadillas and the Baked Potato Soup. Those are just the main dishes. I also love their Smoked Mozzarella Pasta Salad and their Edamame Salad and the Winter Cous Cous and the Greek Tortellini Salad and the Orange Beet Salad. That's not even including the bakery items. I love their Cornmeal Muffins and their Soft Pretzel Rolls and their Pay-by-the-Pound cookies like their Dark Chocolate Almond Laceys and the Almond Cookies and the best Brown Butter Cookies ever in the world. They even a taquiera, a pizza station, and a sushi station, but raw fish creeps me out.

I had the Wild Mushroom Soup today. Now I am content.

On another note, it's Girl Scout Cookie season!