Graduation Sermon by Shakeem Williams, Manchester High Class of 2016
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Before I begin, I would like to have a moment of silence for some close friends of mine that I
have lost in my four years of high school who have either been in college or graduating with me.
A moment of silence for Malvrick Donkor, Safwaan Dalal, Alex Reale, and Justus Joy...
Hello and good morning. My name is Shakeem Williams for those who don’t know me. I have
been a part of this church since as long as I can remember, actually my mom has told me that
I've been here since birth. I have gotten baptized here, I have learned about the world outside
from here, and I have created bonds with much of the congregation. I have created bonds that
will last a lifetime.
When Father Don emailed me telling me that I had to prepare a piece for Youth Sunday, I thought that I knew exactly what I wanted to say especially since I have been dreaming about this day every year since I could understand what a sermon was. However after all my life experiences and immense thought, I didn't know what to write about. I thought maybe I could talk about the many experiences I've been through; good and bad. I thought maybe I could talk about what the future holds for me and what I hope to get out of life. I thought maybe I could talk about the life lessons that my fellow peers have passed onto me. But then Father Don told me that I was going to be the only one speaking this Sunday and he said I could take as much time as I need, but the only problem was, “what was I going to spend my time talking about?” What was I going to base my sermon off of? And then as if God opened the heavens
and answered my prayers, Father Don gave me this week's readings and said I could base my
speech off of that.
I was happy to find out that I had some sort of structure for this sermon
because the hardest thing about writing a speech is figuring out where to start. Now I mean I
could start off with the cliche sayings like, “life is a box of chocolates because you never know
what you gonna get”, and “when life gives you lemons you make lemonade”, but like I said that's
cliche, that's something everybody has been told at some point in their life. So I will take you,
the congregation, on a little journey of what it took for me to get here. The journey that I took to
get to this point in my life, the journey I took to get where to I'm standing today, nearly graduated
from high school.
Now it wasn't an easy journey, but whose journey is easy?
It all started on the day I was born: September 2nd 1998, right across the street at Saint Francis
Hospital here in Hartford. When I came into this world, I came into this world as naïve as any
child who came before and after me. Like those children I was clueless about the environment
around me and what the outside world had to offer. This baby didn't know, at that time, that he
would impact so many lives and that he would strive to change the world and that he would
have rough patches in life that were sprinkled with ups and downs along the way. This baby
didn’t know that there would be a roller coaster of emotions and then some. He didn't know that
he would live through the September 11th attacks in 2001, that he would live through a war on
terrorism and drugs, and a war that took place in the Middle East where people just like him
would be terrorized, killed and taken advantage of because of where they came from. He didn't
know that the world was cold outside those hospital doors. He didn't know that his mom held
him tight, physically and metaphorically, for dear life hoping that the world wouldn't take him
away from her. He didn’t know that dance moves like the dap, the milly rock, the dougie, the
jerk, and many more just like them would be put in circulation for young teens nationwide. He
didn’t know that movements like Black Lives Matter would be implemented in society not only to
talk about how black lives matter, but harp on the fact that they have almost never mattered in
human history.
But as an infant Shakeem grew older, he became subject to stereotypes and
prejudices that he was too naive to understand and pick up. The common one: the “you're black
so you cannot be intelligent” stereotypes, the “you’re black so you can’t be wellspoken”
and my personal favorite, the “since you're black you must eat fried chicken and drink KoolAid
and eat watermelon” stereotype. Which was funny to me because my mom is black and she doesn't like
chicken so you can imagine how that conversation went. People sharing the same skin tone as
myself telling me that my mother wasn't black because she didn't like poultry? How would you
feel if you were told you're not good enough to be this type of person because you don't reach
the standards or conform to the labels that this group of people have? Well let me be evidence
to you and society that standards are meant to be broken.The many stereotypes and prejudices
that precede us as human beings today is beyond astronomical; so much so that there's not
one thing you can find about a demographic of people that isn’t prejudiced or turned racist.
The things that I have seen as a child turning into a teenager is mesmerizing, the amount of good
and bad that exists in this Earth completely eludes me and continues to surprise me. Even
events of my own life have surprised me today when I look back on them, and when I do look
back on it, I'm always shocked and I always told myself that “that was a kid I used to be”. Some
of you may know that I went through two-thirds of my life without a father. I lived with both
parents until I was six when they got a divorce, and I used to always think it was my fault
because as a child I always got in trouble in school because I would always mess around and
clown around in class and get suspensions or detentions. and you know how our imaginations
as children like to run wild and grab whatever it picks up, so I thought my shenanigans pushed
my parents over the edge and caused them to get a divorce. A divorce that consequently
pushed me over the edge and caused me to act out even more than before. But years and
years went by and I started to grow as a person, as a human being. I started becoming a young
adult of young age learning that life isn't worth wasting time and my mom made sure to tell me
that everyday and every night when we used to pray the Lord's prayer before bed but as years
go by so does childish things I stopped praying because according to the site a prime wasn't
cool enough a lot of time was was lost trying to keep up with the trends and being relevant. Not
that I was ashamed of being Christian although that's what people would think by my actions,
that's what my actions show. But let’s jump a couple more years into high school, because after
all, you’ll be able to read about my whole life in my autobiography, because if I told you about
my life now, it would take up the rest of the church service to be honest with you. But actually
before we go into high school, I want to talk about why I wanted to become a chemist. As a
child, I used to watch cartoons and other things like that. I’m pretty sure your children and even
yourself, when you were that age, had one or more cartoon characters that you thought of as
your role models. Well, there was one cartoon that pushed me into becoming a scientist and
eventually into a chemist. It was Dexter from the cartoon, Dexter’s Laboratory that got me really
into science. The crazy experiments he would conduct, the weird chemical reactions and
mixtures he would concoct drew me into science. I even had (and still do have) ambitions to create a
secret laboratory underneath my house when the time is right.
But back to high school. High school was a hard four years for me. Not because of the work
load, but because there was so many events and life experiences that happened to me in high
school...alone. I have almost experienced everything any adult could experience in the real
world, which is why I guess, I really think I’m prepared for the cold world outside. When I was a
freshman, I lost a very close friend of mine, his name was Malvrick Donkor and he accidently
drowned in my gym class, and I put myself, still even today at fault, because he was in there
and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it, so that was really traumatic for me. Ever since then, I
have lost 3 more friends of mine, one friend for the next three years of high school and it hurts
every single time. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy, God forgive whoever that person is.
But as a senior, our class lost a boy to suicide and it’s really sad to think that, this boy (named
Justus Joy by the way), had gotten this far and was going to graduate, but he had felt the urge
to kill himself because of the cruelty of some people. From these deaths, I became sad and
depressed and I also just didn’t care much about anything anymore. I started becoming cynical
and I started losing confidence in myself and in my life.
When my friends passed on, I didn’t know where to turn and I almost gave up, and there’s no telling what I would have done, but this church was there for me, when I felt vulnerable, this church was there for me. Father Don helped me in my struggle and he has been so supportive of me and he was the caring “father”
that everybody should have in their church. He did so many things for me, that I think that it is
almost impossible for me to do something in return for all the things that he has done, especially
in times where I was most “weak” in a spiritual and mental sense. In today’s Gospel, we heard
about Jesus going into a town and raising Lazarus from the dead. There’s more than one way I
interpreted this passage. One way is that, Malvrick, Safwaan, Alex, and Justus were gone but
Jesus has resurrected them in spirit just for me to help me become a better person. Another
way that I have interpreted it is that, I have died, my old self has perished when I went through
those perilous times in my life, but I have found the essence of Jesus in Father Don, you, the
congregation, and this church who have resurrected me into a new and improved Shakeem. It is
because of this church that I have become the person that I am today. Because of Mr. McAlpine
and Mr. Wilson utilizing me in the acolyte core, I have become a much better leader. Because of
Kevin Chick, Linda MacGougan and my mentor George Chien, I have grown a closer
relationship with God. Because of April and Mr. Clark I have learned the teachings of God and
was able to walk into my teenage years with a smile. Because of this congregation, I know now
that I have a second family that I could turn to, a second family that I could take care as well as
take care of me. Because of this church, it has been a safe haven and a second home for me, a
second home for me to vent out my feelings and ambitions and a place where I can be myself in
front of God, because that’s what God has intended. And with this home, I want to keep it in my
heart forever, which is why I will do everything in my power to preserve it.
Today is my last Sunday as a high school student, by next Sunday, the start of college begins and my life journey starts a new chapter. My name, once again is Shakeem Williams and in the fall I will be
attending the University of Connecticut to pursue a degree in chemistry while following a
PrePharmacy track.
And to conclude, I would like to share a piece of a rap song by rapper Childish Gambino that
truly highlights my life and what’s to come:
I could say this was a story about how I got on the bus a boy and got off a man more cynical,
hardened, and mature. But that’s not true. The truth is I got on the bus a boy. And I never got off
the bus. I still haven’t...