Teach Me to Please | Please Me #1

SIXTY FOUR

As I've stated before, it's crazy how life can change very drastically in several months. If you'd have asked me where my life was heading only a few months ago, I wouldn't have known. There would be no college, no boyfriend, and no graduation. My mind would be scrambled in several different places with a bad attitude, guard up to everyone, and a hopeless me sitting in my bed crying to Gossip Girl season 4 episode 2.

But now? I'm graduating, baby.

I was sitting here. Cap and gown. Looking out onto the mainstage in the middle of our football field. And it was amazing.

Everyone said that graduation was overhyped and, don't get me wrong, it was extremely, unnecessarily lengthy but every so often I had to pinch myself to remind me that this was it. I was officially becoming a high school graduate.

"May I introduce, our Valedictorian, Miss Rya McCoy." Principle Cunningham announced.

And yep, Rya got Valedictorian! Apparently, security camera picked up Christopher Knowles getting down and dirty with a few Drama students on school grounds and soon he was out and Rya was back in.

She panicked to me over the phone about what she was going to say in her speech like she hasn't been memorising it off-by-heart since the Ninth Grade.

I watched as she made her way up to the microphone, my smile growing bigger with each step she took. She drew in a deep breath, staring out at the crowd before speaking.

"It's weird to stand here and realise a huge milestone in our life if finally over." She began. "Ever since we walked through those doors four years ago, I know that half of us already wanted to leave."

Laughs echoed in the crowd along with a few expressed agreements.

Rya smiled, "It's safe to say that high school is an experience like no other. The four years that we spent here, hour after hour, day after day, is ending and it's bizarre to remember back to those days where we were just fourteen and trying to wonder what our life would be like when we finally stepped through those doors and became high schoolers. How many friends we'd make? How many friend's we'd lose? First parties? First relationships? Joining a club or two? But let me tell you the one thing I've realised in my four years here."

I smiled brightly at her as she caught my eye. "No matter who you are, where you come from, whatever struggles you have faced, if you look in that mirror every morning and see you – the true you, you're doing okay. And if not, that's okay too. I think we'd all be lying in saying none of us have tried to change. Whether it was to fit in, impress a boy or girl, follow a trend... hide in fear of what others would think."

She stared at me for a moment before I nodded for her to keep going, "Just remember that, no matter what, the only person living your life is yourself and if you stay true with that, things will end up okay."

She took a pause before continuing. "Several of us sitting here today will have never crossed paths. Some of us deemed we were worse or better than others, there is no denying it. But looking out on everyone from up here, we are all just kids trying to get by, trying to figure this shit – I mean stuff out." A few people laughed at her accidently slip up.

"Sorry." She cringed at Principal Cunningham who only shook her head and chuckled.

"So if there is one thing high school has taught me, it's to look behind the facades. See what truly lies beneath the stereotypes and cliches, understand why people are the way they are." I felt myself begin to choke up at her words.

With once final breath, she gazed out onto the crowd before her eyes landed on me again and she smiled softly, "There's a small saying I've come up with, if it's cliché or not, I don't care but see them for who they truly are. Love them because of it."