Before I start with my speech, allow me to ask a very simple question. Have you guys ever complaint about your school, your teachers, or being a student? I bet almost 99.9% of you guys said yes. We actually complain a lot, over the smallest things and lack appreciation. And though this ceremony recognizes our efforts, it also recognizes and pays homage to the dedication of our parents and our teachers. We would not have been able to accomplish this much without their help. So today, in honor of all the students, thank you. You know, I never expected to be standing up here but here I am, giving this speech and probably doing a terrible job at it because if you couldn’t tell, I’m pretty nervous. But thanks to NAMS, it pushed me out of my comfort zone and onto this stage in front of all you wonderful people. Succeeding from middle school is no easy task, looking back it surprises me that I even made it this far. A famous author, Theodore Roosevelt, once said, “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a collage education he may steal the whole rail road.” Even though we have a while to get a collage education, we’ve made it here, to the end of 8th grade. Just like a rail road the train has to be set on a good track, just like our education. So far for this 8th grade class, our tracks have been fantastic ever since we first started our journey. Our first stop was 6th grade. New building, new people, and it were a whole new environment. New fears emerged and I remember feeling like a fish out of the sea. The year went by and our next stop was 7th grade, which the teachers have been preparing us for. We came back much more confident than the year before. We looked down at the 6th graders and asked ourselves, “Were we that short just last year?” And by the end of 7th grade, we were on our way to 8th grade. The year started off at a sprint and it seems to have left many of us still trying to catch our breath but 8th grade is also the…
