Class of 2012 Class History speech

I was lucky enough to give a speech at senior assembly at Springdale High last Friday. Everyone with a GPA over 4.0 got to give part of the "Class History." I was put in charge of writing the part on the high school years, but I only read the last four paragraphs (I shared the speech with Dexter Thomas, Conner Veit, and Elvira Sandoval). Unfortunately, I had to edit it a little because of Mr. Wesson. This is the unedited version of it, so if you missed the speech and want to read it or if you just want to see the unedited version, here it is. (The bold and italicized parts are the parts I had to delete and/or edit.)

            High school. We made it. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s still three years away. Hard to believe that light is only eight days away now. It was quite the journey…

            A lot has changed in the past three years. Nearly everyone has or wants an iPhone. We’ve said good bye to all-time greats Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, while welcoming Adele, Bruno Mars, and a 12 year old girl named Justin Bieber into the music scene. We also welcomed the 7 billionth person to the world. We witnessed our generation’s O.J. Simpson case with Casey Anthony. Our country rallied around the execution of Osama bin Laden.

            Mother Nature has thrown us a few curveballs, too. Earthquakes in Haiti and Japan killed thousands. A tornado wiped out Joplin, just a couple hours north of us. Heck, she even hit Springdale with two feet of snow last year. We retaliated with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, affecting thousands of animals and sea creatures. Maybe the Mayan’s were on to something?

            The Winter Olympics came and went our sophomore year, and the Summer Olympics are just around the corner. Our already soccer-crazed school became even more interested in futbol during the World Cup. Earlier this year, the St. Louis Cardinals won their 11^th World Series title. The SEC flexed its muscles in football this season, rising to number one, two, and three at one point in the BCS rankings. Just down the road, the Razorbacks won a Cotton Bowl and found a way to choke away a Sugar Bowl. They hired Mike Anderson, while Bobby Petrino bought a motorcycle…the rest is history.

            State records have been shattered and state titles were won in bunches at SHS by people like Gabe Gonzalez, Sarah Chewning, and my man Dexter Thomas. A traditionally football-crazy school was dominated by basketball and another futbol team. Unfortunately, we lost a great coach, teacher, and man in football coach Kevin Johnson, who lost his battle with cancer last summer, but we welcomed a new member to the Bulldog family, Coach Shane Patrick.

            Success has come in areas outside of athletics, too. The Law Academy’s CSI team won a gold medal at state competition and will compete at the national competition in Kansas City. A group of FBLA members finished 2^nd at the state level and will go to the national conference in San Antonio. The Bulldog Herald, our school newspaper, racked up several awards at their competition, with one entry that will move on to nationals in Scottsdale, Arizona. DECA members qualified for nationals in three events, while Thespian members qualified for nationals in two events. We pretty much kicked butt around the board.

            We also have quite the musical bunch here. Our choir had 15 members make All-State and seven make the Southwest ACDA Honor Choir. Our band had FIFTY EIGHT members make All-State and they earned the Sweepstakes Award for their 39^th year in a row…THIRTY NINTH! The last time the Red ‘Dog band didn’t get that award, Nixon was president and gas was 40 cents a gallon. Times have definitely changed, but the Red ‘Dogs just keep winning.

            Of course, we can’t go without mentioning our great teachers. They’ve helped us along the way and it’d be impossible to personally thank every one of them, but thank you for everything. Although we’re going to take the credit for getting us out of school improvement!

            You can’t forget the other great staff at Springdale, either. Our counselors work tirelessly to make sure we get all of the scholarships possible. Janitor Ren and all the other janitors pick up after us and help keep this school beautiful. Finally, we have some pretty good principals in Mr. Rollins, Mr. Joenks, and the aptly named, Smith and Wesson.

What’s made these three years really special, though, is our school. Springdale High- home of the Bulldogs…also a few mice, one or two bats, lots of geese, and a countless number of squirrels. Most importantly though, it became home to a little blue bird, who forced us to sum up our lives in 140 characters or less.

            We came into Springdale not knowing how to drive, unable to vote, and not allowed to buy lottery tickets. We leave Springdale in a couple weeks not just as the 100^th graduating class, but as adults ready to face any challenge set before us.