Craven Virtual Academy Shines the Light on Maggie Galloway, Valedictorian

It is an honor to celebrate the academic successes of the graduating class of 2023.  This year Craven Virtual Academy is proud to introduce Maggie Galloway as the valedictorian.  Miss Galloway had an opportunity to deliver her speech during the graduation commencement held on June 8, 2023, at the Grover C. Fields Middle School Performing Arts Center.  Students, families, and special guests were elated to have the chance to celebrate the Class of 2023. As each graduate walked across the stage to receive their diploma, you could hear the joy and happiness expressed by all in attendance. Please enjoy Maggie’s speech as we celebrate the Class of 2023 and all their achievements this year.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the class of 2023 graduation!

Today I’ll be giving you a speech that I wrote at 3 AM last night while eating a bag of nacho Doritos, so I apologize in advance if it’s a bit cheesy.

I’m Maggie Galloway and some of you may know me…some of you may not and that’s your loss…although I am honored to be standing here representing Craven Virtual Academy’s class of 2023 as your valedictorian, I have to admit if I would have thought a little deeper & realized I was going to have to stand up here & give a speech.....I may not have studied as hard.

We’ve spent 13 years working towards this special day. We started out at the first day of kindergarten all the way through elementary school, then those challenging middle school years for both us & our parents, and finally high school. And some of us are simply crazy enough to keep going back for more.

Middle school (pause), and yes, we are probably all thinking “Oh yeah…. middle school” I can speak for everyone in this room, young and old when I say…we all remember it, but we’d like to forget it. Middle school was tough, we were…well…in the middle of everything. We were trying to prepare ourselves for high school, we were making dumb middle school decisions, our minds were constantly changing, our bodies were constantly changing, and it was exhausting. But without those 3 dreadful years and the skills of endurance we learned through those 3 crazy years, we probably would’ve never made it through high school.

I know I can speak for all my classmates when I say high school was a rollercoaster.

Freshman year we hit the ground running, trying to figure out how this high school stuff works, trying to find our classes (and actually get there on time by ourselves), make friends with some upper classman so we looked cool. The best years of our lives were just starting: football games, homecomings, proms, pep rallies, etc. Then the world stopped. The class of 2023 got a single semester of normal high school. In March 2020, as we all know…COVID-19 hit and everything shut down. Being in a completely new place with a completely new schedule is already hard enough. From the beginning of this class’s high school career, we’ve been faced with challenges that no other high school freshman has ever been faced with, but we took it and ran with it.

Sophomore year we started figuring things out, but the pandemic didn’t make it any easier. Most of us don’t even remember our sophomore year. It was all just kind of a blur.

Junior year we were finally settling in and figuring out what we want to do with our lives. Most of us graduates on this stage today started attending Craven Virtual Academy or CVA our junior year. Many feel bad for us that we missed out on the “high school experience” so to speak. But I think we are the lucky ones, especially in today’s technologically focused world, with so many work from home careers. The students on this stage will be some of the best employees you will ever meet. They can manage their time, be efficient in their work, know how to use technology, can research on their own, be professional on Zoom or Microsoft Teams and still find plenty of time to play video games in between your Zoom calls.

Finally…senior year. Everyone’s senior year of high school is made up of many emotions. We’re excited to finally be done and see what is next. We realize moving in different directions may cause some of our relationships to fizzle out, but we know new ones will be formed. Being a senior also means…we should be proud we made it, even if it was just barely for some of us, YOU STILL MADE IT & that is a great accomplishment.

All jokes aside, graduating high school is about more than just the student. It’s about the clubs, the teams, and the friendships we make during our educational career. It’s about the teachers setting us up for success and the principal…Mrs. Warren…being able to manage the entire operation smoothly. That being said… I’d like to thank everyone who has helped us get here to be able to walk across this stage. Thank you to the teachers who encouraged us to do our best. Thank you to the parents who said they would help with our math homework but when we showed them, they had no idea what to do. Thank you to our wonderful principal…Mrs. Warren for keeping this system grounded and not only taking the role of a principal but also a friend. Thank you to our amazing counselor, Mrs. Lucas, for helping us move forward into this next season of life and thank you to the families who supported us the whole way through.

Let’s give them all a round of applause!

As I conclude this speech that most of you likely fell asleep during, I would like to leave you with these words based on the picture “The Savage,” which is of course an equestrian picture:

Never entertain foolishness. Have a purpose in life, stay focused and never let others bring you down. Winners are not people who never fail, but people who never quit. There is an old saying: a champion is someone who is willing to be uncomfortable & Rock bottom has built more champions than privilege. It's about hard work and drive...determination to keep pushing forward when others would love to see you fail. Winning isn't the score on the board, it's seeing something through to the end.

So, see your next season of life through to your own end whatever that may be. Whether going into the military, pursuing a greater education, or going directly into the workforce.

I wish you well on your way. Thank you.