there’s a quote that I personally love
by William Shakespeare and it’s what’s
done cannot be undone think about it
that’s true everything you say
everything you do in life it is all
irreversible we’re walking through life
writing the stories of our lives page by
page when we make a mistake or write
something that we don’t like there are
no erasers sold to fix your permanent
mistakes no matter how hard you try you
cannot reverse the irreversible for a
long time in my life I couldn’t accept
this
when hardship happened instead of
accepting what was in front of me I
instead would wish that I could change
the finalized outcome after a long
journey I’ve realized that everything
good or bad happens and that’s that even
though we do not always want to accept
what’s happening in our lives sometimes
we just have to embrace what’s being
written we’ve all been there stuff big
or small most of the time we can’t
understand why exactly we’re going
through it but we have to go through it
for a long time in my life my life was
pretty great uh there were a few
mistakes here and there in the book of
my life that I could not erase but I
just turned the page and continued to
move on I had a great childhood my
parents sacrificed so much for me my
brother so that we could have a good
life they loved us unconditionally they
still do
they both had jobs and I loved school I
had a lot of friends I was involved in a
lot of activities but everyone has a
page in their book of life that they
wish that they could erase or just rip
out completely my page was November 12
2011 I was 13 years old
and I was at a soccer game it was the
last 15 minutes of the game we were
losing it sucked but I was like okay you
know what I have the ball I’m gonna go
up field I’m gonna score it’s gonna be
fine well while I was running up the
field one of my opponents tripped me and
that’s when the entire picture changed
everything that happened next was like
slow-motion time was frozen I fell on my
head and rolled on my neck and just laid
there on the ground I remember just
looking up at the sky and all of these
people were like coming around me and I
was like I don’t know what’s going on I
don’t understand
and I got up and I was like I’m fine
guys it’s like not a big deal I got
tripped so what it’s fine and as fast as
it happened it was over then I went home
and I didn’t feel right and the next
couple of days I was in a lot of pain
and I didn’t understand what was
happening so I went to the ER and they
told me I had a mild concussion it was
no big deal it was fine I’d heal within
one to two weeks but it wasn’t just a
mild concussion two weeks eventually
turned into two months two months
eventually turned into two years and
then six years later Here I am and I
still have to live with chronic
migraines that keep me from going on
with my life i sat in my room secluded
by myself for four years I wasn’t
allowed to do anything I had to just sit
there because that was the only way that
I could heal I was in immense pain every
single day I lost a lot of friends
because they didn’t understand why I
couldn’t go to school or why I couldn’t
hang out with them and you know it was
just a headache it wasn’t a big deal but
it was more than that I got really bad
depression my anxiety was through the
roof
there were some days where I couldn’t
even open my eyes because the pain was
felt like I had lost my purpose I didn’t
understand why I was here if I was just
sitting there not doing anything I was a
prisoner in my own house and my own mind
and I would always wonder why why did
this happen to me why was everything
that I wanted to do taken from me I
couldn’t play soccer anymore I couldn’t
go to school I couldn’t hang out with my
friends I couldn’t do anything except
sit there and while I was sitting there
I was just stuck on the same page I
didn’t want to write anymore I didn’t
want to move on and then one day I
decided I didn’t want to do that anymore
and I started to heal and get better and
then I was able to go to school junior
year and stay in school the entire year
which was a huge deal I joined the
cross-country team and I was good at
running and I got to perform in high
school and everything was great and I
thought yeah you know what the sucked
took a lot of time out of my life I
didn’t get to write down those
milestones that everyone else got to do
but maybe this horrible event shaped me
to Who I am today maybe if it hadn’t
happened something worse would have
happened and I finally realized I had
moved on to the next page I had finally
accepted that what was done was done I
couldn’t change what had happened and I
had accepted it with grace and dignity
and would not let it define me
everything was great junior and senior
year of high school my life was filled
with happiness I was growing and ready
to take on the world
but then August of this year came around
and I began to question things again
let’s be honest life can be cruel your
world can be like a dream one second and
then like a nightmare the next the
reason I chose to attend Stevenson
universe
he was because I got to do the two
things I loved most under the same roof
I got to run cross country and track
which was something I felt incomplete
without and I got to be a theater major
which is something I had done all
throughout high school and wanted to
continue I was hesitant but excited to
start this new chapter in my life
and I was hoping that this would be an
easy transition but not everything is as
it seems I trained all summer for the
cross-country season and as pre-season
began I started to have pain in my left
foot but I was like you know what it’s
fine no big deal just take it easy
and maybe I can run the first meet I
wasn’t able to run the first meet and
then the pain got worse
so the second meet I was put into a boot
and wasn’t allowed to run and then I
went to the doctor’s and I found out
that I had an extreme stress fracture in
my foot all of the bones in my left foot
were cracked and breaking and I was out
for the entire season and I was like you
know what it’s fine I’ll heal I can be
ready for track no that didn’t happen I
went to the doctors and now I have a
condition called complex regional pain
syndrome and it’s when your nerves send
wrong signals to your brain and telling
your brain oh this hurts even though it
actually does hurt my running career in
college had ended before it had even
started I was crushed my life seemed to
fall apart overnight and I didn’t know
what to do anymore
when hard times happen what do you do
unfortunately there’s no manual to life
telling you how to fix the problem and
fix the problems in front of you you
cannot change what is in the past
however you can write a better future
for yourself
my advice reach out to your friends and
your loved ones doc
don’t think about what you could have
done to alter the path to have a better
future it’s over it’s done with keep
moving forward
let yourself feel things happen they
suck feel it it’s okay
think positively accept what happened
and say yeah it happened but I’m not
gonna let this define me and make the
best of it
that’s all you can do these past few
months I have become a completely new
person I have chosen to look at the
positives in life and I think to make it
in this world that’s the only thing you
can really do you just have to sit down
and realize that no one lives an easy
life and it’s up to you whether or not
to accept the pages that you have
written and to move on and continue with
your story
life happens embrace it
what’s done cannot be undone but you
have the power to create a better future
for yourself I am a number two pencil
and I may have been broken but I can
still write the rest of my story
thank you [Applause]
by William Shakespeare and it’s what’s
done cannot be undone think about it
that’s true everything you say
everything you do in life it is all
irreversible we’re walking through life
writing the stories of our lives page by
page when we make a mistake or write
something that we don’t like there are
no erasers sold to fix your permanent
mistakes no matter how hard you try you
cannot reverse the irreversible for a
long time in my life I couldn’t accept
this
when hardship happened instead of
accepting what was in front of me I
instead would wish that I could change
the finalized outcome after a long
journey I’ve realized that everything
good or bad happens and that’s that even
though we do not always want to accept
what’s happening in our lives sometimes
we just have to embrace what’s being
written we’ve all been there stuff big
or small most of the time we can’t
understand why exactly we’re going
through it but we have to go through it
for a long time in my life my life was
pretty great uh there were a few
mistakes here and there in the book of
my life that I could not erase but I
just turned the page and continued to
move on I had a great childhood my
parents sacrificed so much for me my
brother so that we could have a good
life they loved us unconditionally they
still do
they both had jobs and I loved school I
had a lot of friends I was involved in a
lot of activities but everyone has a
page in their book of life that they
wish that they could erase or just rip
out completely my page was November 12
2011 I was 13 years old
and I was at a soccer game it was the
last 15 minutes of the game we were
losing it sucked but I was like okay you
know what I have the ball I’m gonna go
up field I’m gonna score it’s gonna be
fine well while I was running up the
field one of my opponents tripped me and
that’s when the entire picture changed
everything that happened next was like
slow-motion time was frozen I fell on my
head and rolled on my neck and just laid
there on the ground I remember just
looking up at the sky and all of these
people were like coming around me and I
was like I don’t know what’s going on I
don’t understand
and I got up and I was like I’m fine
guys it’s like not a big deal I got
tripped so what it’s fine and as fast as
it happened it was over then I went home
and I didn’t feel right and the next
couple of days I was in a lot of pain
and I didn’t understand what was
happening so I went to the ER and they
told me I had a mild concussion it was
no big deal it was fine I’d heal within
one to two weeks but it wasn’t just a
mild concussion two weeks eventually
turned into two months two months
eventually turned into two years and
then six years later Here I am and I
still have to live with chronic
migraines that keep me from going on
with my life i sat in my room secluded
by myself for four years I wasn’t
allowed to do anything I had to just sit
there because that was the only way that
I could heal I was in immense pain every
single day I lost a lot of friends
because they didn’t understand why I
couldn’t go to school or why I couldn’t
hang out with them and you know it was
just a headache it wasn’t a big deal but
it was more than that I got really bad
depression my anxiety was through the
roof
there were some days where I couldn’t
even open my eyes because the pain was
felt like I had lost my purpose I didn’t
understand why I was here if I was just
sitting there not doing anything I was a
prisoner in my own house and my own mind
and I would always wonder why why did
this happen to me why was everything
that I wanted to do taken from me I
couldn’t play soccer anymore I couldn’t
go to school I couldn’t hang out with my
friends I couldn’t do anything except
sit there and while I was sitting there
I was just stuck on the same page I
didn’t want to write anymore I didn’t
want to move on and then one day I
decided I didn’t want to do that anymore
and I started to heal and get better and
then I was able to go to school junior
year and stay in school the entire year
which was a huge deal I joined the
cross-country team and I was good at
running and I got to perform in high
school and everything was great and I
thought yeah you know what the sucked
took a lot of time out of my life I
didn’t get to write down those
milestones that everyone else got to do
but maybe this horrible event shaped me
to Who I am today maybe if it hadn’t
happened something worse would have
happened and I finally realized I had
moved on to the next page I had finally
accepted that what was done was done I
couldn’t change what had happened and I
had accepted it with grace and dignity
and would not let it define me
everything was great junior and senior
year of high school my life was filled
with happiness I was growing and ready
to take on the world
but then August of this year came around
and I began to question things again
let’s be honest life can be cruel your
world can be like a dream one second and
then like a nightmare the next the
reason I chose to attend Stevenson
universe
he was because I got to do the two
things I loved most under the same roof
I got to run cross country and track
which was something I felt incomplete
without and I got to be a theater major
which is something I had done all
throughout high school and wanted to
continue I was hesitant but excited to
start this new chapter in my life
and I was hoping that this would be an
easy transition but not everything is as
it seems I trained all summer for the
cross-country season and as pre-season
began I started to have pain in my left
foot but I was like you know what it’s
fine no big deal just take it easy
and maybe I can run the first meet I
wasn’t able to run the first meet and
then the pain got worse
so the second meet I was put into a boot
and wasn’t allowed to run and then I
went to the doctor’s and I found out
that I had an extreme stress fracture in
my foot all of the bones in my left foot
were cracked and breaking and I was out
for the entire season and I was like you
know what it’s fine I’ll heal I can be
ready for track no that didn’t happen I
went to the doctors and now I have a
condition called complex regional pain
syndrome and it’s when your nerves send
wrong signals to your brain and telling
your brain oh this hurts even though it
actually does hurt my running career in
college had ended before it had even
started I was crushed my life seemed to
fall apart overnight and I didn’t know
what to do anymore
when hard times happen what do you do
unfortunately there’s no manual to life
telling you how to fix the problem and
fix the problems in front of you you
cannot change what is in the past
however you can write a better future
for yourself
my advice reach out to your friends and
your loved ones doc
don’t think about what you could have
done to alter the path to have a better
future it’s over it’s done with keep
moving forward
let yourself feel things happen they
suck feel it it’s okay
think positively accept what happened
and say yeah it happened but I’m not
gonna let this define me and make the
best of it
that’s all you can do these past few
months I have become a completely new
person I have chosen to look at the
positives in life and I think to make it
in this world that’s the only thing you
can really do you just have to sit down
and realize that no one lives an easy
life and it’s up to you whether or not
to accept the pages that you have
written and to move on and continue with
your story
life happens embrace it
what’s done cannot be undone but you
have the power to create a better future
for yourself I am a number two pencil
and I may have been broken but I can
still write the rest of my story
thank you [Applause]
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