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Alex Clarke

Mrs. Weston

English 4: Expository Reading and Writing, Period 5

4 March, 2009

My Last Lecture

My last four years at Oak Ridge High School have been a roller coaster ride to say

the least. It has been a time of confusion, discovery, happiness and hurdles that I have had to

overcome as well as figuring out the type of person I wanted to be. I have always been different

from everybody else and I have always felt different. From my days in preschool I have felt

strange and awkward every second of everyday. Everyone always had a big group of friends to

clique with while I was feeling stuck on the sidelines, but I have learned that all the hype about

“fitting in” and “every person is supposed to have a big group of friends” is fruitless and at the

end of the day, it means absolutely nothing.

I have always been more sensitive than others and I have learned to accept that this is

who I am and I cannot change that. I have done some partial growing up since grade school and

junior high but I still have much more to learn. High school has taught me how important it is to

trust ones self and not worry about what people think. It has also taught me that what ones self

thinks of ones self is more important than anything else and not every situation is in black and

white. There are always going to be speed bumps and complications are always going to arise.

What is most important is that I do not let life keep me on the ground.

I have met some interesting people over the four years, but more to the point, High

School has taught me that there is always something to be learned from any experience, even if

the experience is not the best. Nobody’s Perfect even the “popular students”. In an ideal world,

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everyone would accept everyone for who he or she was, but the world is not perfect and it is not

fair, but everyone can choose what he or she wants to do with the hand they have been dealt. In a

way, I should embrace what all these heartaches and rejections have taught me over the years. I

am the master of my own destiny, and I cannot let anyone tell me who I should be or how I

should think or feel.

The fear of the unknown still haunts me to this day, but I have learned how to let

the unexpected happen when it happens and the rest will fall into place. Spending three weeks in

France over the summer has taught me this as well. The most valuable lesson I have learned my

four years at Oak Ridge High School, it is not the destination that makes life worth living, it is

the journey.