Graduation Speech: Show the World Your True Self :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

There was a time when I dreaded going to high school. During the weeks before I started my freshman year, all I could picture were mazes of hallways and classrooms, unfamiliar faces of students and teachers, and upperclassmen who loved to torture frightened freshmen. Fortunately, my visions were exaggerated. I soon got into the swing of things in high school. I figured out which teachers really did give you detention if you were late to class, which classmates were safe and those I didn't want as my lab partners. I began to find my place in the school, as well as everyone else's place there. By October, I knew who was who and what was what. In November, everything changed. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. I went through chemotherapy, lost all my hair and missed 40 days of school. Most people didn't know I was sick. My teachers helped me keep up in class, my friends were as supportive as they could be and I wore a wig to hide my bald head. It was at this point that I dreaded going to school again. I didn't feel like I fit in anymore. I had lost my place, and didn't know how to find it again. Ironically, the one thing about myself that I was most ashamed of helped me to fall back into place. Towards the end of my treatment, in a small burst of bravery, I decided to stop wearing my wig. I declared I didn't care what people thought, that I didn't want to hide anymore. But inside I was very scared. How would people react to a bald girl? But despite my doubts, one Monday in April I came to school with only a baseball hat covering my baldness. I had never had so many people stare at me before. They tried to hide it. I could tell they didn't want to be rude -- they just couldn't help themselves. I didn't say anything, mostly I just looked at the floor. That's what I did until the end of the day when one girl blurted out what I'm sure everyone else was thinking, but was afraid to say, "So why did you shave your head?" You can imagine my reaction to that one. But, oddly enough, after that one question, things were easier. Over the next three years, I became a typical high school kid again.