My Graduation speech

Our Headmasters, faculty members, family, friends, and most importantly the graduates. Welcome. We’ve waited for this day in many forms for years now. In couple of minutes between chemistry and math class. In sighs of joy as we finish our official exams and in the small goodbyes that we have been bestowing on every detail of our campuses. Now that it is upon us we are sorry and glad to be here.  

I was very curious when I was younger. I would ask my mom about all sorts of stuff and she would tell me to wait until I was older. Obviously this hasnt worked out for me because I have stunted growth and I havent grown taller since 7th grade. But that hasnt been the case in this institution. Our curiosity has always been fulfilled whenever we seek it. Our teachers have readily provided us with all sorts of love and knowledge. This has created a s some sort of familiarity between us.  

And as I know Familiarity is comfort. Familiarity is safety. Today we are saying farewell to familiarity. This institution has been our guardian for twelve years and is cautiously sending us to the adult world to make our own decisions. I’d like to thank my mentors for their unconditional guidance throughout.  

  

I would also like to thank my ultimate inspiration. My best friend, my mom . My mother has constantly declared to me that I can do whatever I want and be whoever i wanted to be. She has weaved our house with music, fun and love.  She has guided me through these past seventeen years and I don't know if she has ever realized that i'm all too feeble without her guidance. 

  

I became very aware of this in summer of 2015 and I would like to share this story with you today. I went on a camping trip to the sea of galilee with my family. I can't see without my glasses and so i swim with them. Therefore, i unthinkingly dove into the water not expecting that my glasses would tumble off my face and into the depths where i desperately reached out but only grasped the void of losing my only source of vision. My only source of clarity. As I tried to regain my balance I stepped on hidden sharp stones and submerged spiky branches. The pain was cunning and I surrounded.  

  

I faced my mother with all too despair telling her of the incident. although the lifeguard laughed at the idea of finding glasses in the middle of the sea. She threw herself in the water for what seemed like hours trying to find them. Eventually as she turned her back to the sea walking back to me. She raised her foot and felt an object get stuck to it. She was ready to scream in fear but found my glasses instead in between her two toes.  

  

This horrific experience has taught me that the impossible is  feasible. These glasses can represent so much. They can represent hope,money, health, success and our loved ones. Entities that we lose and regain along our way. When our beloved principal ostaz khader khader died. we had lost a very important person in the deep dark water. His absence was most felt and his compassion is deeply missed. To an extent where the doors of our school have become unbearable. However,  These glasses can remind us that life is possible even without our loved ones. They promise us that we will pass these hardships.  

  

You see class of 2018. We lose so much in that water. Justice is lost on daily bases in the deep dark water. That is the reality for us Palestinians.  Two days from now the American embassy is moving next door. Our jerusalemite rocks are being used to deny our existence. Deny me, you and our common ancestors. One by one, day after day we could slip into reality and forget about the day we protested against this. Lose clarity towards the glasses we are losing right now. Perhaps, It is easier to surrender than to change something that is impossible.   

But if theres anything I learned from these glasses is that to continue on. Look for them. Re-create them. Dont look at the sea in haplessness. Let’s choose not to surrender. Right here, right now. Choose to devote our lives for our cause because our choices are affecting the future right now. Theres barely anything that we can do but its the choice of not complying to our reality that matters. The simple glimmer of hope is enough. 

   

Class of 2018 look around you.This is it. We are the future. We do own the world. We are fast moving entities barely seeing our surrounding heading to where that flash of gleam is. There's just one simple thing left. Lets take off our robes, face the world and change it together.