Learned Optimism

Here is your Friday STORY on: HAPPINESS: Happiness can be the result of forgetting. Emotional highs and lows use up our energy and ability to remember. We forget how to be happy. Today's story explains how easy it is to forget, but at the same time how valuable it is to remember. The story is about a speech, cleverly written to express a point. Be assured that the writer was happy during its composure. If some anxiety or anger would have occurred whilst writing this clever speech, we would have never felt the expressive gratitude given to the VALUE of good friends. A CENSORSHIP-FREE GRADUATION The following salutatorian speech was delivered by the author at the June 7, 2002 graduation ceremony of Hollidaysburg Area High School. The text was initially censored by school officials because of its religious content. The school later allowed the author to deliver her remarks un-censored after being contacted by Liberty Counsel, a public interest legal group. The uncensored speech is presented here. I don't know about all of you, but I definitely don't feel old enough to be standing here today. I maintain that I am really an eight year-old somehow trapped in the body of an eighteen year-old. But, in the past few weeks, I've really started to think about what I have done in my life, and I am slowly coming to the realization that a lot has transpired in my seemingly few eighteen years. Time seems to have flown past without me, though I possess a mind full of memories that indicate otherwise. If I try as hard as I can, I am able to pull up some memories as far back as kindergarten, though this is quite a chore, as most of those memories have been crowded out by derivatives, the structure of DNA, and the format for a diction paragraph. But once I dig through to those early years, I begin to understand how far I have come. I've gone from being unable to even write my own name to being able to understand (supposedly) college level calculus and live for a month in Germany. My repertoire has expanded greatly, and, looking back, I cannot imagine how I accomplished everything I have. As pictures from my past cross my mind, I am glad for what I have achieved, but then I look a little closer and catch a glimpse of something even more amazing in my life. Yes, I am blessed to have done all I have to reach this point, but when I look hard at where I have been, I see how I have arrived here. At that point, I finally understand that I owe success not to my own efforts, but to the love and friendship of some truly wonderful people. Usually they are not on the forefront garnering attention for themselves; no, they are in the background, doing the things that matter most, the things that have gotten me where I am today. They stayed up with me into the wee hours of the morning, discussing all the things that really matter; they pored through history books, trying to pick out the information that would surely be on that massive test tomorrow; they were there to listen to my frustrations when time seemed too short and the work too long; they gave me advice when I didn't know what to do, yet never pushed me to do what they thought was right. More than any of that, though, they taught me how to have fun in life, regardless of the ugly situations that often present themselves at the most inopportune of times. By now you must be wondering who these awesome people are, and to that I answer that I have been very blessed to call them my friends and family. God, in His perfect way, has managed to connect me with these people who have shaped my life, and for that I am forever grateful to Him. Now, as I prepare to go off to college, the hardest part is not starting a new chapter, but finishing this one. Those people who have grown so dear to my heart must now be allowed to go their own ways, and in the case of some, must be left behind as I move ahead. But just when I think I can't go through with it all, who should be there, encouraging me to follow the dreams God has given me, but those dear people, the same ones I don't want to leave. I dread these partings that draw nearer by the day, but these people have helped me understand that there is One who will never leave me or forsake me. He will stick closer to me than a brother, even when I mess up or even try to run from Him. He, even more so than the people I love, has been there every day, never forcing me to do anything, but always encouraging me to stretch my limits and strive for the best He has to offer. As we prepare to continue in this journey of our lives, I look back with special fondness on everything my friends and family have done for me. Through all we have been through together, I have learned the lessons that will make my life happier in years to come. The people God has placed around me are some of life's sweetest blessings, and my prayer is that God will bless them as much as they have blessed me. I encourage all of you today to remember those people who have made you who you are; do not forget to thank them before you leave. They have aided us in reaching this point where we now stand, and for that they should never be forgotten. (Shannon Wray) QUOTE: 'Dwell not on the past. Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind. Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time. From this moment onwards you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed.' (Eileen Caddy, Spiritual Writer)

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