Scott’s Branch High School salutatorian Shiayra Ragin said it will be difficult to leave the walls of a school that she and fellow students of the Class of 2016 have come to know and love.
“We made it through the storm within these four walls,” she said. “We made it through Ms. Brown’s sarcasm. We made it through Ms. Mallette’s online homework assignments. We made it through Mr. Johnson’s endless stories.”
“Despite the hard times teachers may have given us, I would like to thank them all for not giving up on us,” Ragin said. “We may have been the cause of some of your gray hairs during the past four years, but you have given us a great education. You have prepared us for our years following high school.”
Valedictorian Harold Morrow urged his classmates to enjoy their last night together on June 3 during graduation exercises in the school’s gymnasium.
“Here we are, everyone together for the last time,” he said. “For the last minutes we have, let’s forget all our problems and our disputes. Let’s stop thinking about the next step, about college, and just pause and reflect.”
Morrow said many of the graduating class had been in school together for 14 years.
“Most of our lives we have spent five days a week, eight hours a day at school,” he said. “We have learned, played and fought together. School was life.”
“Now, school is the gateway to life,” he said. “As I spoke to the second-graders (earlier in graduation week), I realized 14 years isn’t that long at all. The next thing you know, we will be graduating from college.”
Morrow congratulated his fellow students for “beating the odds.”
“Only about 50 percent of African Americans graduate high school, compared to the national average of 80 percent of people our age graduating high school,” he said. “We are 30 percent behind. This is why we are seen as inferior. But we have proven the world wrong.”
Morrow said their graduation proves “anyone of any ethnicity can do anything.”
“Now, we look to the future,” he said. “Everyone here has a future and should continue your education. You can attend college. There are no excuses. If you don’t want to attend college, attend a trade school. Or join the military. Or you could take a chance in the workplace.”
Morrow, however, said he doesn’t believe the workplace is for the Class of 2016 “right now.”
“I think the workplace is no place for us: We should focus on our education and become entrepreneurs to create more jobs,” he said.
Ragin agreed, saying that she and her fellow graduates should not stop with graduation.
“We’ve begun to mature, most of us, as out teachers challenged us to be mentally tough,” she said. “All of us have faced obstacles in the past few years, and many of us have overcome those challenges through the support of our families and teachers.”
Ragin said it’s important to “know that there’s a world out there filled with many opportunities after high school.”
“I want you to remember this: If you ain’t got no haters, you ain’t poppin’,” Ragin joked, quoting recording artist, rapper and singer Nikki Minaj in her closing address.
“She said, ‘Cherish this moment, cherish these people. You only live once. Life is not a sequel,’” Ragin said. “There are great times we shared together. There’s a majority of us who would probably like to receive our diplomas tonight and never look back. But we must not forget where we came from and who got us to this point. We take with us these memories that will shape our future.”
Morrow said that he is afraid of the future.
“Yes, the valedictorian and guy who has won all these academic awards and scholarships, I am afraid,” he said. “I am afraid that I will not find success in life. But I have to remember that God has not given us over to a spirit of fear. Without my faith in God, I would go no further. I urge you to put God first in everything you do.”
Echoing Ragin’s quote of Minaj, Morrow told his classmates that “there is no do-over or restart of life.”
“You can’t change any memories or actions,” he said. “To those who applied themselves, I don’t want to see you pursue a career at McDonald’s. To those who did not apply themselves, I expect a discount.”
“You’ve heard the saying that it’s not over til it’s over,” Morrow concluded. “Well, high school is over. And life starts now.”
