[Rebecca Stewart is one of the six honor graduates in the Goshen Central High School Class of 2009. She prepared the following essay in celebration of Goshen High School's 117th Annual Commencement on June 26, 2009.]

The past few weeks have been filled with a lot of reminiscing. It seems to many of us, our parents especially, that yesterday was our first day of kindergarten, and now it’s our last official day as high school students. There has been much talk of first days and last days lately. However, these moments are merely the bookends of our adolescence. What matters is not this day, but all of the moments of our lives leading up to it that have determined who we are.
Susan B. Anthony once said, “Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.” The memories we take away and those that have shaped us are not of grades or test scores, wins or losses. Graduation is seen as an ending or a new beginning, but we put too much importance on things that are given these titles. Instead, what we should remember are the best days.
Following our middle school graduation ceremony, I walked the halls of C.J Hooker to see everything one last time. I tried to take everything in so that I would never forget it, but even now that picture is faded in my memory. I don’t remember my first day of sixth grade or my last day of eighth. What I do recall are all the moments that happened in between. I remember the day I met my best friend, the times I laughed until I cried, and the times I just cried. These are the moments that matter.
A few weeks ago, like many of you, I received my eighth grade letter. I awaited it with nervousness as well as anticipation, thinking it would contain some forgotten memory, and some insight into the person I had been and the one that I’ve become. All it contained, however, was a long string of silly anecdotes and inside jokes. At first I was disappointed, but then I realized that everything in that letter, everything that I wanted my future self to know, I had already remembered. The things that truly matter do not require a conscious effort to be remembered.
When I ended my final day at Goshen High School, I did not walk the corridors searching for lost memories. I didn’t look back because I knew that everything I needed was already with me. Don’t worry about holding onto things that don’t matter because the things that do matter will never leave you. It’s not the graduations or the award ceremonies that measure how far you’ve come; it’s the small little joys and triumphs that have shaped your destiny. These are the things that should and will be immortalized. Treat every day as if it were a first or last. Make every day extraordinary.