Message from the 2021 Valedictorian, Dalton Daugherty
Good morning everyone. I would like to say a thank you from the class of 2021 to everyone who helped us get to walk across this stage. Thank you to every single family member of every single graduate, thank you to every friend of a graduating senior, thank you to every staff member from the custodians to the teachers, thank you to the gear up program for getting us ready for college, thank you to all the administrators such as our superintendent Cory Keith and our principal Sharron Privett, thank you to all of our board members, and most importantly a huge thanks to all my fellow seniors of the class of 2021 . I am extremely honored to speak before you today as class valedictorian.
I was told that I was valedictorian Monday morning. For about 5 seconds I was very proud … then I realized that I had to write a speech. So instead of putting it off until the day of like I normally do I got right on this dreaded last assignment. To be completely honest I didn’t even know how to spell valedictorian, let alone know what a valedictorian speech should look like. So I did what anyone who wants to learn how to do something does, I googled it. I immediately started typing and actually got a few pages done, then I realized something wasn’t right. I was going about it the wrong way, the speech sounded like something hastily put together for a grade and this speech means way more than an “A” for not only me but the whole senior class. So I scraped everything and started again not using ideas from the internet but from myself.
Imagine high school as an hourglass. The first day of freshman year flipped the hourglass and thus started the countdown to today, graduation day. The hourglass at first looked full and acted as if it wouldn’t ever run out, freshman year seemed to be the longest year and every year after seemed to go by faster and faster as the sand slowly ran out. Finally leading to senior year which seemed to go by in a single blink of the eye.
Freshman year, I’m sure everyone here remembers our first year of high school. Fresh out of being the upperclassmen of middle school we again found ourselves at the bottom of the totem pole, not knowing where our classes were or who to stand around and talk to during break. Sophomore year, we were still underclassmen but we were getting a good idea of how everything worked at high school. Junior year was the first year we were considered upper class men and actually got to go to prom. It was also probably the most important year of high school and thus came with the most work as we prepared to make senior year as easy as possible. Senior year, the upperclassmen of the school. Normally the highlight of highschool, with prom, senior trip, senior skip day, college trips, and numerous other activities reserved for seniors.
But unfortunately the class of 2021 had a very unusual senior year because of the pandemic of Covid 19. We missed much of senior year including senior trip and college visits. But the class in front of me took full advantage of this unfortunate year. From using extra time gained by missing class to focus more on their college classes to those who started their careers early we have all found ways to cope with the unfortunate reality of life in a pandemic.
As we prepare to walk across this stage and begin a new era in all of our lives we will always remember the memories made at McCreary Central. Imagine our lives are all written down as books, this highschool has provided the pen and paper and all we have left is to write the story.
