VAL & SAL

Walker Bailey

TREY GREENE VALEDICTORIAN SALUTATORIAN

“When you graduate high school or college, what do you want to say about your experience? The one thing I think that many people could stand to have a little more of in their life is balance. The word balance is defined in the dictionary as a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions. To me, the last few words stood out. ‘In the correct proportions.’ Who is to decide what that means? And that’s the thing – it is different for everyone, which is why everyone’s ideal experience is unique. I can’t tell you what ratio that is, but I can guarantee it is a plethora of talents, experiences and goals all intertwined to create a singular mosaic only beautiful when combined into one. So how would you create such an artwork? The answer is you can’t. It creates itself. But what you can do is gather the pieces. Go to some far off country, study for that extra hour to get your A, run that second faster to get your PR in a race, go see a one-time concert. Those pieces matter. You don’t want to get to the end of your life and realize you don’t have the parts you need to create your mosaic. But there is still time to seek them out and that is what I encourage everyone here to do. I promise you that you won’t regret it.”

- Walker Bailey

“First, be yourself, have fun and always check the next lane before merging. Secondly, ask yourself often and genuinely, “Will I be glad that I have done this in the future. Will this thing I am doing, or perhaps not doing, be worth doing after it has been done?” Third, remember that our capacity to succeed is 75% self image. If you cannot see yourself as someone capable of doing what you need to do, you never will be. You decide who you are; and by extension, what you can do. It is never too late to change. Fourth and finally, sometimes you are going to feel lost. When you don’t have a target to move toward, it can feel like you are not moving anywhere at all. We struggle to find goals, we find them unattainable. We worry that who we were in the past delimits who we can be in the future. The past exists only in memory and the future only in expectation. The past and the future – our lives and dreams are stories. We are all stories in the end. If you have nothing else to guide you, make sure you are a story worth reading. We are all stories in the end. Try and live a story worth reading.”

- Trey Greene