A Writer's Farewell Speech Analysis

Graduation Speech

Sophie T.

So when I started writing this speech, I had writer’s block. I had no idea what to write, no idea what would look good. Which is why I’m talking about it now. See, when I want to do something, it has to be perfect. I’ll come up with something good to start with, I’ll write it in, and then… and then I’ll have no idea what should come next, so I forget about it and decide it wasn’t up to par in the first place anyways. I guess you could call me a perfectionist. And life is the opposite of perfect. So… sometimes I feel like it stinks. What I always forget is that nothing is truly just right. If you keep erasing that one line in your drawing and doing it again, soon your paper will be all smudged and it’ll look like

That’s probably because I only like the ones that have the little booklet telling you whether that leaf-shaped chocolate is filled with sea salt caramel or raspberry pureé, but that’s besides the point. I never did understand that strange sentence before I saw it somewhere with its little tagalong friend, “you never know what you’ll get”. Before I saw that, maybe it meant that everything in life is different: solid white chocolate, dark chocolate with almond pieces, mint-and-lime-filled squares… all not the same. Maybe it meant that life only lasts so long, like how a box of chocolates just has a dozen or so to devour. Maybe it meant that I would be eaten when I died! But no. It has to be the most stupidly obvious thing that clearly only applies to some chocolate boxes. (Thanks a lot, Godiva!) But, even so, all of those things I used to think about life were true. Well, all but the last one. Everyone leads different lives, and it won’t go on forever. Okay, now I’m just rambling. Better get on to the good stuff! To be honest, this paragraph was kinda

You’re a young child about to start kindergarten. The world of school is the Underground, while everything else is the Surface. Got that? Good. To get to the Underground, you have to get to a giant pit on a mountain. You fall into the pit without knowing what’s going to happen. And then you meet a flower! Your first friend. They tell you about the basics of school, but then end up actually being two-faced and mean so a random goat mom (representing your teacher) leads you through the catacombs of kindergarten, also known as the RUINS. The Ruins is filled with puzzles to test you to see if you are smart enough to go to first grade. Then, when you finally figure all the puzzles out, you graduate! The last day of kindergarten is extremely sad. Goat mom doesn’t want you to leave, and you can either just leave her behind without another glance or spare her. But she tells you that you can never come back. You, sadder than ever before, swallow and nod your head solemnly. Then you can venture into the snowy territory of Snowdin, which is elementary school! It is extremely chilly and can make you shiver with excitement or fright. The slippery mistakes you make are represented by slick ice covering the ground. You meet two best buds who soon become your new pals. They are represented by skeletons because they are the backbone of your existence. Without them, you would never be able to survive in the Underground; friends are crucial to keep you from