Delivering a high school graduation speech is a definite honor. After all, graduating from high school is a major milestone in your life.
Nevertheless, preparing and delivering a speech at graduation can seem a daunting challenge! So here are some tips and a sample speech to help guide you.
A few simple pointers to keep in mind about giving a high school graduation speech are…
- Keep it short
- Make it personal (share a school-related story)
- Use humor
- Leave your fellow students inspired
Use language that is comfortable and natural to you and your fellow students – but do remember that it’s also important to keep your speech tasteful and in keeping with the formality of the occasion!
Below is an example of a high school graduation speech. Feel free to use it as a framework for your own, substituting the specifics of your school experience for the details given in the example.
If you would like to share your own graduation speech with visitors to Best Speech Topics…scroll to the bottom of the page and submit it! I’ll put it up on the website so that it can inspire and help others’ to write their own high school graduation speech.
You can also check out some quotes for graduation speeches that may help inspire you with a topic around which you’d like to focus your speech.
Start of high school graduation speech
Principal Brown, members of the School Board, teachers, parents, friends, and fellow graduates, it is an honor to speak to all of you today.
A little over 12 years ago I was 6 and I remember my first day of school. I was excited with my new Power Rangers lunchbox. My parents were there with their camera, snapping pictures and wishing me well. And I met a really cool kid named James. In some ways not much has changed in 12 years.
Here I am today. OK, so I didn’t bring my Power Rangers lunchbox but, my parents are here with their camera, snapping pictures and wishing me well. My best friend James is here and he’s still a really cool kid. And, I am excited.
But this is how things are different. 12 years ago I was excited but I had no idea about the implications of the journey I was about to begin. I had no idea that after 1st grade there would be 2nd grade and 3rd grade and so on. I was just excited to be in first grade.
Today, I know that I am standing on the brink of my future – the first day of the rest of my life. As a “computer geek” I am inspired by the words of one of our greatest American computer scientists, Alan Kay. He said, “The greatest way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Some of us here today, including our parents, are wondering how our lives are going to turn out. It is OK to wonder but, I also think it is important to realize that our future is not just something that happens to us. It is up to us to create.
So, fellow graduates, I urge you today to embrace the opportunity before you. Take what you have learned throughout the last 12 years and put it to good use.
Leave behind what isn’t helpful (I’m leaving my Power Rangers lunchbox) and bring forward with you the lessons that will be the working parts of your greatest invention ever, YOUR LIFE! Congratulations!
End of high school graduation speech
