Many local high schools celebrated commencement this week, with thousands of high school seniors receiving their diplomas including those at Pitman, Turlock and Turlock Christian high schools.
Along with the “Pomp and Circumstance,” hundreds of leis and balloons that proud parents, grandparents, siblings and family friends have filled gymnasiums and stadiums around the area, nothing says graduation like the perfect commencement speech.
Pitman and Turlock high speakers all encouraged their fellow graduates to remember the good times, while looking ahead.
“As I reflect back on these past few years, I realized that we spend so much of our time in anticipation for the next moment, but especially for the one that we are in right now,” said Pitman High speaker Rosepreet Sandhu.
Fellow Pitman grad Saveena Singh compared the future to a mountain journey.
“The path to your goals and dreams may not always be easy. Like Dr. Seuss said, ‘your mountain is waiting.’ The road ahead might not be a road, but a mountain that we have to climb to get to where we want to be, which is our final destinations. Mountains can be steep and hard to climb, but once you get to the top, you can look down and see all that you’ve accomplished to get there.”
Turlock High speaker Tekoa Murphy spoke of the passion that many students found during their four years of high school.
“Now, here we are, sitting next to you, our future doctors, lawyers, plumbers and mechanics — you might want to get those numbers before you leave — but in all seriousness, I’d like to thank Turlock High School for our passion. The Greek definition of passion is defined as an intense or intractable feeling in respect to a specific person or thing. In other words, it hurst to not do what we love. It’s why I chose to edit my video over my English homework. It’s why we stayed late after practice to get a couple reps in, or later after rehearsal instead of going to home to do our chores. For some, it’s why we spend hours working with our animal instead of trolling on social media. It’s why we sacrificed sleep, so we could study. Shout out to Red Bull, but most of us wouldn’t have discovered these passions if it wasn’t for the great teachers and advisors of Turlock High School, who saw something in us and pushed us further than we knew we could go.”
Turlock High’s Diego Peguero encouraged his fellow graduates to never give up, no matter the setbacks.
“Class of 2026 do not fear failure, but please be afraid of regret, especially the regret of wasted potential. Be afraid of the chances you didn’t take, the dreams you talked yourself out of and the moments you let slip because you were scared. Let me ask you all something. If you were 50 failures away from your dream life, how quickly would you start failing? Think about that. Every mistake, every setback, every ‘no’ could be one step closer to the life you’ve always wanted. Failure is not the enemy; hesitation is. Life will never make perfect sense, and that’s okay. It does not have to make sense to anyone if it makes you happy. Let me say that again. It does not have to make sense to anyone if it makes you happy.”
A list of graduates from Turlock, Pitman, Turlock Christian, Denair, eCademy Charter, Roselawn, Hilmar, Hughson and Turlock Adult School will be published in the Journal’s Graduation special section in the June 10 issue.
