Graduation is such a special time for seniors and serves as a nice environment for those close to them to give congratulations and celebrate their life accomplishment. At the event, there will be two students who are chosen to speak and give their own takes on what graduation means to them and what they think it should mean for those they care about.

After several brief on-campus auditions, four students are picked by a panel of staff judges. Two students to speak at the senior breakfast at Knott’s Berry Farm, and two to speak at graduation itself on June 13. Only seniors were permitted to audition, and among those who did are: Marissa Berridge, Rylee Allen, Catie Mullner, and Joshua Lembesis.

The panel of judges- Brianna Gullatti, Meghann Lukach, Gina Aguilar, Amy Selof and Suzanne Munsell- were looking for speeches that were close to 3 minutes long and contained heartfelt words about their own high school experience along with words of advice to their fellow graduating class.

Lembesis was one of the last seniors to audition. A part of his speech was about “the odds of someone being born and how we need to take better advantage of the life we’ve been given.” Lembesis also says that while writing and delivering the speech was difficult, he was up for it since it’s “a big challenge, and I like challenges.”

A section of Mullner’s speech compares being a high school senior to riding what is now called the IncrediCoaster in California Adventure; “you keep climbing up at lightning speed until you reach a sudden stop, where you ask yourself, ‘Is this really where I have to get off?’”

On almost the opposite side of the spectrum, Berridge delivered certainly heartfelt lines like “we are all stars.”