2002 sal speeches, ATEMS' Nduwimana: Tell your story and create a legacy

First and foremost, I am glad to stand here before you today, though the sole reason I may be presenting this speech could be Dr. David Young and Mrs. Allison Stanely’s approval that I won’t attending The University of Texas.

All jokes aside, I am truly honored to be before you all today. I would first like to thank my family. Mom and dad, thank you for always believing in me. I know the road it took to get here wasn’t easy and I definitely wasn’t the best kid, so thank you for the unconditional love and care you have given me.

Secondly, thank you, Christina, Jeanine, Eva and especially Ali for all of your support. I would also like to thank the teachers and staff for the work you put in day in and day out to get us all to where we are now. I think I can speak on behalf of everyone when I say that we all appreciate the effort that you all put into helping us get here.

I would like to thank Dr. Young and the administration. It has been a pleasure getting to know you all throughout these past 4 years through super crew. I would like to thank:

Aaron.

Steven.

Frank.

To the Class of 2022, we finally did it, we’ve finished a chapter in a story that we will one day tell the generations to come.

I would first like to talk about the journey we have thus far gone through as a class. As most of us may agree, this was not an easy road to travel through. From COVID and online school, to being on a new campus, we made it, we’re finally here, we finally have no more economics exams!

But some of you have become generational breakers. Becoming the first to graduate high school and the first to attend college in your families, some of you have paved the way on your own. Whether it be conducting research or obtaining internships, or most notably, when Aidan took charge of our protest against trust cards during sophomore year, you were resilient, strong and succeeded in your efforts to get here.

While it was a hard journey to overcome, we made it.

To this Class of 2022 we indeed overcame feats like no other, I mean come on you have me here at 8 am, when has that ever happened? But needless to say, this life will come with struggles. We will go through trials, temptations, and tribulations but you must remember that “a tree only begins to grow after it has rained” and I'm not saying it will be easy, because it definitely won’t. Some days it will rain longer than we would like.

There will be days where you want to give up but I urge you to call on to the lord and he shall provide you with the strength to endure.

I would lastly like to thank God, because

“He picked me up

He turned me around

He placed my feet on solid ground

I thank the Master

I thank the Savior

I thank God.”

And if I was to share anything I’ve learned anything these past four years of my life. It would be to surrender your life to God and to love as Jesus once loved us. It wasn’t studying, cramming or trying to pass a test because Lord knows Mrs. xxxx Lambert’s Friday quizzes were impossible to pass. It was the surrender of my life to the Lord and allowing him to place his God-given purpose into my life and allowing him to write my story because our God is loving God. And The thing about God's love, Agape love, is that it is a love that is sacrificial, unconditional and everlasting. It is “self-sacrificial,” devoted to someone, a love that is willing to truly serve others.

So to my peers in the Class of 2022, I call upon you to love like Jesus loved because I know God has called each one of us to make this world just a little better than how we found it. I know he will place every one of us into world-changing fields. Whether it may be in Biomedical engineering, automotive, nursing, metrology or mathematics - sorry Mrs. (Stephanie) Angel, but I think Kaylynn's coming for your job - physicist, CEO, military personnel, entrepreneur, technician, pastor or engineer, we will all find a place where we belong. And I believe when we begin to tell the story of how the Lord

picked us up

He turned us around

placed our feet on solid ground

and led us to the life we now live, we will allow our legacy to be told.

With this, I call you to tell your story, and to tell your testimonies because there is nothing more powerful than telling a story of who you are and what you overcame. I believe that I stand in front of people that will change our world.

People that will leave a legacy of how they made the world a better and more honest place, with legacies that will be carried through generations because when it is all said and done, it won’t be about all worldly things you obtained in your successful life, but about the relationship you had with yourself, God, the life you lived, and the hearts of the people you touched. Your legacy won’t be about how many As you had or how many medals you won - even though we had some great UIL competitors - but about the impact you left on people and how you made them feel. I want you all to remember: “Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.”

And a question I pose to you from a conversation with Dr. Young is “will you still be able to impact their lives?” when it starts to rain again and struggle and hurt come, will you still be able to impact their lives? Regardless of the career or position, you are placed in. You see the beautiful thing about the lord is he will never ask more than what you will be able to handle. There is a parable in the Bible called "The Parable of the Three Servants" in Matthew 25:14-19 14 “At that time the Kingdom of heaven will be like this. Once there was a man who was about to leave home on a trip; he called his servants and put them in charge of his property. 15 He gave to each one according to his ability: to one he gave five thousand gold coins, to another he gave two thousand, and to another, he gave one thousand. The story goes on but the point I want to point out is, in verse 15, it states “according to his ability.”

God will give you things that are according to your ability, it won’t be the same as everyone else, not everyone is like Jameson making 60 dollars an hour but the lord knows you can handle the job, all you have to do is to just give your all. Be attentional.

So, to the Class of 2022, if you remember anything from what I’ve said, it would be to love one another, as God loved us, and go tell your stories and make history

Whether you remember me as the guy in a dress for a Romeo and Juliet project or the guy who said bro every other sentence and called himself a nice guy, I want to leave you with these words, by Martin Luther King Jr.: “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

Thank you, Class of 2022.

— Claude Nduwimana, ATEMS valedictorian

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: ATEMS' Nduwimana: Tell your story and create a legacy