High School and School Valedictorian Competition Essay

In the essay, The Joy of Graduating by Kate St unity Lombardi, describes the traditional heights school valedictory speaker competition with the most prestigious students. The fight for the position of valedictorian has escalate over the years. Danielle Gorman, an choose valedictorian at Moorest give High School in New Jersey, was quoted by Lombardi of the qualifications and standards it as well ask to become valedictorian. The traits Gorman describes common to valedictorians were taking on too some(prenominal) and are unwilling to fail.I think that Gormans opinion is reasonable because many people who strive to become valedictorian want on much(prenominal) than they can chew by taking denary advanced placement sort outes to cheating(a) activities in and outside of school. My elder naval division in high school had very competitory students when it came down to ASB or any student elections. Each student who participated was usu solelyy the overachiever they took multipl e AP classes, police squad captains of the sports teams, and public speakers for all school events. Each student tried to form austereer and prove that he or she could attempt to accomplish more than one other(prenominal).The students knew that having the title in high school would launch them apart from anyone else so that they could have a higher ranking along with using their popularity to their usefulness in gaining that title. The idea of goting this title would overwhelm students so much that it would cause more stress on themselves on top of the classes they were already taking. Because of our schools competitiveness it was difficult to decide one one-on-one for valedictorian. When it was time to decide who would become the valedictorian, in that location were 2 top students whom our class thought would fit the winning spot.One of the students was a girl named Asal, who was choose senior class president for ASB. The other student was a boy named Henock, who was also elected in ASB scarcely for the school president. Both students had smart as a whip grades close to a 5. 0 gpa and they both participated in every on and off campus school event. Each of them had many responsibilities. They separately would do their part to overhaul the school community when it came to any projects or tutoring. They set a cracking example for the student organic structure to look up to. They wounded up the mobs during athletic games and pep rallies with incredible school spirit.They distributively would avail come up with ideas and themes for dances, along with helping our school clubs with dramadraisers and events such as blood finds. They would help put up flyers and accommodate announcements to make the students aware of fundraisers and activities that were constantly going on at school. They would try to help get the alone school more involved by creating fun games and contests going on during lunch to make sure that everyone felt alike they were a part of something no matter what grade level they were in.They had all this pressure coming down on them with all these school activities, along with their school work. They felt the need to accomplish these tasks in order to get into their dream college so this would help them feel a little more secure that they would be accepted. It was incredible that they were able to complete these tasks as just time students and it must have been mentally and physically exhausting. Our student body recognized their knockout work and accomplishments so we naturally put them on a pedestal.The senior class knew that one of these remarkable scholars could be elected valedictorian. I personally encountered experiences with them both on how stressful it was for them to undertake so many duties. I had a couple of classes with each of the presidents, and I started to sweetheart each of them become more stressed out as more and more talk went around the school about who would become the valed ictorian. They took the opening to work ten times harder in class and pushed to receive sinless scores on tests and projects to raise their overall grade, so their percentage would help raise their gpa.They took on so many extracurricular activities that they had no kindly life outside of school and struggled to keep up with everything going on. They were thrust themselves to the limit to be the best they could be. This soon turned into a disorderly competition between the two most prestigious students in our senior class. Once graduation day had finally arrived, we were anxious to obtain whose hard work and commitment had paid off. Everyone was sitting in their assigned seats, cloaked in their cap and gown anxiously waiting for the speeches to be presented.I was looking around the stage to see who was elect for the class valedictorian, but I couldnt seem to spot out Henock or Asal anywhere. The bargainer was the first to give out the welcome speech. He presented a a few(pre nominal) awards and gave out some words of wisdom to the present senior class. Finally, at the end of his speech he announced that it was time to name our senior class valedictorian. Everyone moved around their seats anxiously trying to see who would be honored with this swell achievement. The principal then surprised us with a statement none of us expected.There were to be two valedictorians honored this year because of their outstanding gpa and wide variety of extracurricular activities. Henock and Asal both gained the winning spot that they were each competing for. These two candidates spent their high school career taking various AP courses and being active participants in the school community in order to set themselves apart from the crowd and gained the honorable title of valedictorian. Little did they know that apparently their gpas were only a hundredth of a point apart.The principal explained that Henock in truth had the overall higher gpa, but he felt that because of Asal s hard work and effort she should deserve the same recognition. Needless to say our whole senior class was pretty shocked. We noniced how hard working and competitive these two had gotten to try to be valedictorian and yet both of them authorized the winning spot. Our school traditionally only had one valedictorian chosen each year so it caught us off guard that in that respect were two valedictorians.It was ironic that they were both competing so hard against one another when all this hard work they accomplished still got them the credit they deserved. When the speeches were to be given out by our two valedictorians, I was expecting for Henock and Asal to compete for a better speech as well because I thought that since there is traditionally one valedictorian, they would still try to go item to head at who could give a better and more inspiring speech. moreover to my surprise they each gave out their congratulatory response to one another within their speech.In Henocks speech, he acknowledged that Asal was a great inspiration and motivation for him to try harder in his classes and to exceed even his own expectations because that was how he perceived how she was in her classes. He admitted that he looked up to her with great respect and that she definitely deserved to be valedictorian whether or not he was chosen with her. Asal was very grateful and said a few great admiring words about him to show her appreciation towards him and his hard work.The fact that my highschool had two valedictorians did seem to be out of the routine for my senior class, but it certainly was deserved to the right people. Danielle Gorman describes the traits of a valedictorian to take one more tasks and harder classes with the drive to not fail.My classmates Henock and Asal indeed had that drive and it paid off well for the both of them and they each were appreciative that they got to dower that number one spot with each other. Although they went head to head with each other trying to achieve the same goal, they were in it to win it and they did.