My Valedictorian Speech

Last year, I tested out of High School early, because my classes were boring me and I wanted to get on with  my life. I felt a bit like a traitor, leaving all the friends I loved because of my own desire to get out of school, but watching them graduate this week, I felt such a nervous excitement for them. I decided that, in their honor, I would write the speech I would have given had I stayed in school and become Valedictorian. Not that I ever would - I'm very happy with my B+ average, thank you very much, and don't see any need in overachieving. But the idea for this speech came to me, so I decided to write it anyways.

(A few notes, before you read: Our school mascot is the Blackhawk. In every line of this speech, every fourth syllable, specifically, is stressed. Also, an apostrophe indicates a missing syllable, such as mem'ries, and a trema indicates a double syllable, such as oür.)

Friends, Blackhawks, schoolmates, lend me your ears!
I come to bury our time in this place,
And not to praise or honor days gone by.
Their evils oft live on in memory,
And only good is forgotten in time-
So let it be with our time in this place.
Our Brutal memories remind us that
The time we spent here was harsh, tiring.
If it were so, in joy we take our leave,
And see the school answer for daily pains.
Here, under leave of our dear principal,
And under torture of brutal mem'ries,
(Which, I am sure, are sorely accurate),
Come I to speak at our graduation.

In my time here, I did make friends and grow,
Though faithful memory serves to remind
Studying, long hard hours at night for tests.
But did we not defeat our rivals, too?
Did we not suffer our tri'ls together?
Did this in memory cause so much pain,
That when we cried, others coul'n't weep with us?
Our torturous memories should be made of
More lonely, isolated histories.
Yet Brutal thoughts of boring, long classes,
Physical Ed., days too hot or too cold
(But dare forget how thrice teased we the size
Of oür thricely new underclassmen).
Yet our unbiased mem'ry bids us think
Unpleasant thoughts of our long suffered times.

I speak to not disprove unpleasant thoughts,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You did enjoy and love, once, your time here,
And that enjoyment comes not without cause.
What cause withholds you then to mourn our loss?
O judgment! Responsibility! Age!
Children have lost their youth, their careless days,
To join the pressures of society!
I kindly ask you bear with me, class.
My mind has turned to all those days gone by,
And I must pause til it return to now.

(At this point, I would have paid some of my Senior friends in the audience to shout out something like "I remember!" "I want to leave this place!" and "Listen! Listen!")

But yesterday we might have cried to see
Our youthful days disappear in the world.
Now lies the past, not to be reachieved.
O students, if I were disposed to stir
Your hearts to turn in gladness for these years,
I would your sleep-deprived days unfair wrong,
You toiled, during which, for unseen ends,
With boring classes and some unkind peers,
Through teenage angst and phony importance.

O, but look yonder, a table, and what
Be those atop it? the mark of the end.
And what sweet mem'ries I just now recall,
Which, pardon me, I mean not to relate,
For thoughts of sweet friendships, forged and refined,
Of lunch breaks, our class groups and our clubs,
Would leave us unable to continue.
Yea, begging souvenir for memory,
And in our futures, as men and women,
With jobs, careers, houses, spouses and bills,
Wish for out simpler days and these old lives,
Passing our own childhood days to our
Own, future, children.

I say no, gentle friends, please do not think
How we should treasure these years, these chances.
We are not wood, are no stone, but students-
At least, we were, for now we join the ranks
Of life, adults, out only company
Our friends, our families, our memories.
Let me not drive you to tears, for only
The wood or stone could be wholly unmoves
By four years here, twelve youthful years in all.
Do you remember, I must, your first day?
Do you your worst day? Or only your best?
I see again the pieces of paper
That say 'tis all over, all of those days,
And I forget, I fear, those memories
Which are not bittersweet and so joyous.

I am compelled to relive those days
In my minds eye, flashing in an instant,
Now, at the death of our singular youth.

I see the table is ready for us-
Cameras poised, our fam'lies are waiting.
Shall we descend from our thus so far lives?
To our uncertain future plow? O friends,
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

(After writing this, I realized it would have made more sense to repurpose a monologue from a Shakespeare play we'd actually read in class. Oh well. If you want, here's the text of the original speech and the Marlon Brando version as well.)
(On a side note, I suddenly remember years ago thinking both that I would never want to be Valedictorian just so I wouldn't have to give a speech, and also that I should have become Valedictorian, just to ensure that the speech was amazing.)