I should mention that the coolest part of the graduation was watching a few Sudanese Lost Boys get their diplomas. That was pretty touching.

In the unlikely event that I am ever asked to deliver a graduation speech, here follows the text of the speech I shall deliver:

Road, path, travel.
Boat, sail, future!
Memories!
Bridge. Prelude.
Forward, tomorrow!

Having to give that speech always seemed like a punishment handed out for being such a goody two shoes.

(No, my grades weren't that good. Plus I was kind of weird. No speeches from me.)

My class rank didn't put me in the running for the V-speech. But I always liked the early 20th-century idea of having a Class Orator -- where someone's selected for their speaking ability. Or just have a graduation-speech contest, with auditions and a prize.

Our school actually did split valedictorian from graduation speakers. Speakers had to audition.

I was not valedictorian (though I was 7th in my class, of 450 or so), but I did speak at graduation. Fairly treacly, though, I'm afraid -- I got very sentimental at the end of my senior year.

But it was well-written, highly literary treacle. :-)

We didn't have a valedictorian - people had to audition to give the speech. However, they DID seat the top 10 students in the front row, in order of GPA, with the rest of the students alphabetically behind them (I was number 4, btw, but I remember feeling robbed because we weighed GPAs and I'd taken more credits than my fellow top tenners, meaning that my AP classes were less highly valued than their AP classes) (Also: God, I was annoyingly prissy about my grades in high school!).

At my high school graduation, the valedictorian largely deferred to the salutatorian. Good move. The salutatorian gave an unexpected speech, completely ignoring the usual future focused similes and metaphors. In that little Kansas town, all everybody under 18 had thought about for years was getting out of town, to more interesting environs, and I guess she recognized that she couldn't meaningfully speak to all of our probably far-flung future selves, but that she knew us, and the town that schooled us, cold.

So what the salutatorian did was call to our minds the place we were coming from. She concentrated on the town that had educated us, and helped us grow up, and the values its people lived daily. She urged us to live, as much as possible, as if we were still going to be seen at the Post Office picking up mail, and at the Friday night football games, no matter where we went. And she recognized some teachers most of us deeply respected, and some town people who had quietly got things back to normal after the big Skelly gas station fire downtown in our sophmore year had devastated Main Street.

Wasn't a dry eye in the house when she finished her 12 minutes. Best damn commencement I've ever attended. And, still, the only commencement speech I can remember.

I am grateful that the valedictorian thing isn’t done in the UK, or, at least wasn’t done at my school, as that would’ve been me, who, at that age, could only have delivered a short, awkward, and barely-audible speech…

I was valedictorian. I wish I hadn't been. My speech was awful. It's on tape, and I refuse to watch it. Thanks for drudging up that memory. Thanks a HEAP.

*fumes*

*hugs mike*
You went with the boat motif, didn't ya?

God, I dunno, something about Montana... ? It's repressed.

Our valedictorian talked about how much of a nerd he was. At least our salutatory was given in Latin.

A friend of mine was valedictorian- only someone's Mom bitched, and she had to share the honor with #2 as co-valedictorians. Which bumped my (gay) ex-boyfriend to salutatorian. Both #2 and the ex didn't want to give speeches. Too bad, I would have loved it.

Bob Elliot gave a terrific faux graduation speech on Prairie Home Companion in 1990 or so. It was the most inspired 5 minute cliche I've ever heard.

What's a salutatorian?

Runner-up.

We had to sit through speeches by the valedictorian, salutatorian, student council president, a couple teachers, the principal, and the superintendent.

The valedictorian speech sucked - the girl was valedictorian because of cheating and everyone in the class KNEW it. The salutatorian speech (by a truly smart and nice girl) was better but still full of high school bullshit angst.

The only reason I went through the ceremony was because I promised my mom I would go through the ceremony if she'd let me graduate early. By the time of the ceremony I hadn't even been at school for six months.

At my school, you had to audition to be a speaker. We had 3. One guy did the "entering next phase of your life" speech. A girl did the "entering next phase of your life as illustrated by Dr Seuss" speech. My friend spent his speech saying that his education was worthless except for learning to brown bag his lunch to save money.

I miss that guy.

Our valedictorian was a guy I had a huge crush on since junior high. He was a good speaker and did a very funny speech. I was nowhere near valedictorian (though I was in the top 10% of my class) but I did get to be in the ensemble who sang at graduation. That was fun. (We sang "We'll Never Say Goodbye")

Well, we had Dux and Proxime Accessit, but you know, it's the same thing. They didn't give speeches though. Which is good, because the dux was one of my best friends, and he would have sucked.