Salem High School Senior Gives Commencement Address

Aysha Qamar, one of Salem High School's newest graduates, delivered the Class of 2013 commencement address at her graduation at Eastern Michigan University on Sunday morning. 

Aysha won a contest to deliver the address for Salem High School. The contest was open to all seniors. Finalists were selected by a panel of teachers and administrators. Finalists then presented their speeches to another panel of judges, who selected a winner from each school. 

"It was my dream since my freshman year," Aysha said. "I've always wanted to be one of the people who make a difference in the school and standout."

Following is her speech, Be the Change:

Welcome parents, teachers, students and families and thank you for attending Salem Class of 2013’s graduation ceremony! Wow. I can’t believe it’s finally here. For many years I’ve dreamed of standing here today. Actually being here is a bit different than my dreams. There are many more of you than I had imagined and I’m not nearly as composed as I thought I would be. In my dreams, I sounded more like Obama and less like Ms. South Carolina. However, what’s important is that I am standing here today with all of you. After thirteen long, memorable*cough cough* painful years, we are finally here today.

All jokes aside, my being here would not have been possible biologically or philosophically without the support, constant nagging, and unconditional love of my wonderful parents, and really, my entire family. I also had friends – believe it or not – and over the years, I have been lucky enough to have some of the best teachers a girl could ever ask for. The worst have luckily been repressed from my memory, thank you Freud.

As more and more amazing people have come into and gone out of my life, they all had one thing in common. The reason they impacted me so much is because, through their words and actions, they inspired me to do great things, fulfill my potential, and change the world. They never taught me to sit back and watch things happen. No. I have been taught to be proactive, to treasure the time I have and above all, make a difference.

These past thirteen years have been preparing us to stand on our own feet and now, we do. We are all strong, capable individuals because of those who helped us learn to fly and now it is our duty, it is our turn, to help others in need.

One quote has stood out to me over the years above all others. “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. Yes, you’ve all heard it, but have you really contemplated it? Think about it. How many people do you see Tweeting about how unfair the world is? How many people do you see posting hippie Facebook statuses like “Make love, not war”? How many people hopped on the bandwagon of Kony 2012? The answer is many, almost everyone in fact, including myself. We are all guilty of becoming online social activists and although our intentions may be pure, what good have our complaints done? How many of us have actually gone out and fundraised for these causes? How many of us have joined protests or even emailed our House representatives telling them of our concerns and proposing a way to end them? The answer is close to none. Compared to the amount of people that talk the talk, the small fraction of those who walk the walk is laughable.

Yes, we wish to see change, but we are not being the change! We must be the change we wish to see in the world. How, you may ask. If I want to end world hunger, how can I possibly go about doing that? A task like that seems impossible. Let’s face it. Most of us are broke; living off of our parents’ money, maybe making enough at Wendy’s to pay for gas and will be trying to pay off student loans for the next 20 years. We are also young. We don’t yet have the degrees that will earn us the respect to have those in power hear our voices, nor do we have the gray hair that will earn us a spot in Congress so we can make the choices. Then how do we go about making a difference in the world? How do we go about being the change?

We do not have to be Gandhi and lead an entire movement in order to change the world. Start local. As cliché as that sounds, start local. It is only too easy to become absorbed in our safe, privileged little bubble of Plymouth-Canton. If you want to end world hunger, don’t start by looking 10,000 miles east towards Africa. Begin by looking just 30 miles east at Detroit. 44% of people in Detroit are living in poverty, that’s almost half of the city! If you want to fight world hunger, volunteer some of your time at a soup kitchen, get some friends together and go to open door ministry, hand deliver food to these people and get a sense of just how lucky you are. There are so many opportunities to help people and make a difference nearby, all you have to do is go out and look for them. Yes, that means leaving your favorite spot on the couch and How I Met Your Mother for a couple hours and actually going out and doing something for other people.

Be the change, and when you are the change, you’ll inspire others to be it as well and believe me there is strength in numbers. Just look at what we have done for Jesse Lindlbauer and his family. That 5k run started with a person and an idea, and look what it has become. Just look at what we can do when we all band together and stand up for the right cause.

I challenge you all to take out some time, maybe just a few hours, between the partying and your job this summer to give some time to others. Many of you have already been doing this. Through student organizations like Interact Club, Key Club, National Honor Society, APAC, and so many more at the Park you have been doing so. You have been volunteering your time and even if it was just for those nasty college applications, believe it or not you have made a difference. Don’t let it end here. Don’t let today be the end of years of giving back to your community.

Let this be the beginning. Let this be the start of a life rich with enriching the lives of others. Make your time so valuable so that one day, 50 years from now, whether you are living with one loving spouse or many loving cats, you can look back at your life with integrity and think “Wow, I did something for the world. Wow, I made a difference. Wow, I was the change, and I inspired so many others to be the change.” Now that would be a life worth living.

Look around you class of 2013, feel the pride. We made it through a lot. We are the class that survived bomb threats and swine flu. The class that trekked through monsoons and frozen tundra to get from A pod to phase 3. The class that witnessed the epic “riot” of 2010 and between the running, screaming, police motorcycles, food fights and fire alarms, aced our finals. The class that, despite our worries, learned to navigate between three schools and 6000 kids freshman year. The class that begged the ACT gods to give us the score we needed to get into the college of our dreams. The class that battled senioritis and applied to colleges and waited for months that felt like centuries. Some of us got accepted, others got deferred, and many got rejected. But we found a plan B. Rejection didn’t mean defeat, it meant “look at other options”. We pushed through and found the best one for us. Now here we are today. We graduated. Despite all of our troubles and obstacles, despite all the times we said “I’ve had enough, I can’t do this anymore, maybe I wasn’t cut out for this, maybe I should just give up,” we didn’t give up. Nor will we in the future. We will have the same defeating thoughts in college in the years to come and on an even grander scale, but remember this. We are well prepared to face any challenge that is thrown at us and we will not let such thoughts bring us down. Stay motivated, be determined, persevere and always remember that we have been through struggles before, we made it through, and we will always continue to move forward.

Congratulations class of 2013. We made it. Our journey does not end here. No, a new one has just begun. Go out and do great things so one day, 20 years from now when we meet at some reunion, I can look around me and be proud to say I was part of the class of 2013: the class that changed the world.