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Tell a story using a graduation, acceptance, or farewell speech.

Posted in Short Story on Jun 6, 2025

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✍️ 37 stories

The End of IT

Submitted to Contest #306

(CW: the imagery of a hurt farm animal) Bees are racing around these gorgeous mango-orange lilies, the grass is freshly slashed, and I spy those forced smiles on your faces. I see you out there fanning yourselves with the programs you cannot read clearly without your glasses. I know these precisely arranged white folding chairs aren't perfect for your newly aching joints and your ultra sweaty thighs, but behold...Welcome...to the end of a cycle. Four years ago was different. We'd bleed like normal femme creatures, a feathery drop or two firs...

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Valedictorian

Submitted to Contest #306

Greetings, fellow students, parents and teachers.Good afternoon, fellow students! And welcome to all parents and faculty!Hi, everybody!Congratulations class of 2025! (pause for cheers) and a warm welcome to all the families here, celebrating with us. My name is Annabelle Woodcock, and despite all of your efforts, I have the great honour of delivering your Valedictory address on this, our graduation day. It has been a long road for all of us, full of twists and turns, ups and downs. But I am proud to be standing here, alongside one of you, ea...

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Class of '26

Submitted to Contest #306

Thank you, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Ha ha ha, alright. Thank you. Guys, I’m not the Pope. Thank you. Thank you. My goodness, normally people aren’t that happy to see me walk onstage if I’m not carrying a guitar.Well, who’d have thought I, of all people, would be giving the commencement address at a place like Brown? Or that I’d be given this fancy gown and an honorary doctorate? I’ve no doubt your President, Dr. Holman, approved me as a speaker because I’m famous and not so much for my academic achievements, but, I did do some resear...

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Neville's Big Speech

Submitted to Contest #306

Class of 2025, I am your valedictorian, Neville Rabgrent, and I’m here to talk about the future, which is very bright, and a little about where we came from. Normally, this is supposed to start with some thank yous, so far be it for me to break from tradition. I want to thank my parents, Norman and Kitty, who had the absolute foresight of naming me Neville, and thus condemning me to a lifetime of looking at porn to have any contact with the opposite sex. Thank you very much. Some snickers, but for the most part the chatter in the room died d...

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Linfei’s Moment

Submitted to Contest #306

The two thousand graduating seniors in UPenn’s auditorium shifted restlessly in their seats. Linfei Zhou met her sister’s glance across the auditorium. She had promised to mention it for her, but now, exposing a professor at graduation felt like an unwanted burden overshadowing her big day.Professor Carson gave her a subtle nod, signaling it was time to take the stage. She smoothed her gown and stepped forward.“Greetings to the 2,178 members of the graduating class of the University of Pennsylvania!” she called out, her voice ringing with pr...

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The Nobel Prize Speech

Submitted to Contest #306

The following is an official transcript of the Nobel acceptance speech given on Dec. 10, 20--: Ladies and gentlemen, members of the press: I must say that I still feel as though I have been having a long and beautiful dream these last few months. Nothing can prepare the writer for the moment – a vivid point of realization - when he discovers that his chosen profession was not a mistake or a whim that would have been best left to adolescence. For that, I thank the academy. I thank you all.If you will permit me, I will spend some time discussi...

14 likes 8 comments 8
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What Dies in the Dark

Submitted to Contest #306

Brother found the letter on his cot in the back room, weighted down with the shoebox that held thirty-seven years of unsent birthday letters. All addressed to Dr. Katherine Marie Sullivan-Chen, Portland General Hospital, Pediatric Oncology. Flora's handwriting was shaky from the morphine but every word cut clean as a blade. The cancer took her three days after she wrote it, alone in the county hospital because she wouldn't let Brother waste money on a private room. Brother, Don't you dare read this till I'm cold. I mean it. You always were...

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Farewell Address

Submitted to Contest #306

Farewell AddressRain tapped the windowpanes in soft pulses. The sound of a lone siren rose and fell faintly in the distance. Inside, the Oval Office lights were harsh.The president sat at his desk with his sleeves rolled up. In his hand was a printed copy of George Washington’s Farewell Address from 1796, double-spaced and underlined in blue ink.He started to read from the document, but then looked up to finish what he’d memorized. “The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity… must always exalt the just pride of patr...

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It's All In The Words

Submitted to Contest #306

Nobody other than me knew what happened to Paul Cherbrand after his huge debut in the stage lights until one year prior of today. Whether or not it could have been prevented, I hate to tell myself, but the very least I can do is tell the story like he did. And it's a complicated one that I don't believe either sometimes. If you believe in coincidence, or purpose, I'll leave that part up to you. But for now: just bear with me.He was giving off this huge bravado speech about his time there at Banks Memorial High School, flaunting the Valedicto...

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Where I'll Be

Submitted to Contest #306

By the time you find this, I’ll be somewhere only my soul could carry me. If I don’t come back, don’t follow the roads. Don’t unfold a map like it knows the way. Instead, fold it the way you used to fold love letters—carefully, with trembling fingers, afraid the crease might split a name in half. The path to me isn’t paved in miles or marked with signs. It begins, simply, with remembering.Close your eyes.Start in our backyard, where the grass always grew a little too wild and the summer air buzzed with that soft, familiar hum. Fireflies blin...

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Oh The Places You'll Go OR How the Dead Helped Me Ace High School

Submitted to Contest #306

Classmates, Parents and Family, Teachers and Honored Guests, I have been asked to deliver this speech on this day of our graduation. I have the highest GPA, so I get to speak. This speech will be more like a confession. (pause) I am number one in our class for a reason. (a longer pause with a dry cough cough) I cheated.(murmurs and mumbles with a hint of rage and disbelief)I cheated all of you for the past four years, and I did it with the help of my family. My dead family(the crowd buzzes and hums and snickers into silence.) (After the long...

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A Person of Integrity

Submitted to Contest #306

Good morning, My name is Victoria Cruz, and I am honored to be named Jackson Elementary’s valedictorian. There are those who argue that being a 12-year-old valedictorian is unnecessary. We shouldn’t have valedictorians in an elementary school. This is a part of my life that twenty years from now, I may not even remember, so what’s the point? There is so much change that I and my classmates will go through (body changes, friend changes, college, getting a job, there’s so much!!) and sixth grade doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. And two da...

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The Speech

Submitted to Contest #306

The ballroom ceiling was a long-ignored mirror, warped with years, but still capable of catching the glint of champagne and poor decisions. A pair of pale pink spotlights drifted like searching eyes across the lacquered floor, grazing sequins and shadows with equal indifference. And right there, under a chandelier that trembled like it might leap to freedom and end it all in a shower of crystal, stood the least likely person to be holding a microphone: me.“Hi. Wow. I didn’t even plan anything. Which—if you know me—is deeply in character.”Lau...

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Sapientia per Sacrificium

Submitted to Contest #306

“Good evening, faculty, families, and fellow graduates.My name is Marla Holloway, and I have been Head Girl here since September of this year.Our school, Saint Anne’s Academy for the Gifted, was founded in 1883. Its motto? “Sapientia per Sacrificium.” Wisdom through sacrifice.Knowing this, I’d like to start with a moment of silence for those who could not make it today. For all family, friends, staff and siblings with whom we cannot share this celebratory moment. And of course, for my late counterpart, Julian Moss. As some of you may know, w...

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2025 Geriatric Marvel Award Acceptance Speech

Submitted to Contest #306

“It is with great honor that I accept this Geriatric Marvel Award. I know so many of us have struggled through what seems like a lifetime of hardships and prayers just to get to this point. Something that comes so easily to others became such a daunting task for us. Analyzing yourself day in and day out wondering why you can’t simply be ‘normal.’ Hating your body for not doing what it was naturally created to do. I want you to know that I see you. The world sees you and you’re not alone. Motherhood is within your grasps! I remember playing ...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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