As a student with a love for science, it was a stellar choice for St.Timothy High School valedictorian Amelia Solomon to draw inspiration from the stars in her graduation speech.
“Stars pretty much explode to become the shining light we see,” she said. “I wanted to use that analogy to show that we need to fall before we can do our best—which many of us have experienced in high school.”
Solomon has had her head in the clouds a long time, dreaming of one day becoming valedictorian. This dream was sparked when she attended her older brother’s graduation as a Grade 8 student.
“My brother graduated when I was in Grade 8, and I saw their valedictorian, Izzy,” she said. “I remember feeling so inspired and telling myself, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so cool.’”
From that moment, she set her sights on stepping into that starlit spotlight herself. She studied hard, learned about the selection process early, preparing for when the heavenly bodies align.
“We did our presentation at lunchtime last April,” she said. “They recreated the setting of St. Mary’s Church in our gym, with a podium and a microphone to give us that sense of a big space.”
With a small body of teachers and students watching, Solomon delivered her speech.
“I was kind of stressed before,” she recalled. “I’d been worrying leading up to it, but by the time the day came, I just told myself, ‘I can’t worry.’ I put on a good outfit and knew I had to go for it and try my best.”
Solomon is no stranger to the stage. Throughout high school, she was a star in the performing arts.
“I’ve done drama since Grade 7 and, actually, this year I started band again,” she said.
Though delivering the speech was a personal goal, Solomon emphasized that her message was for her entire graduating class.
“I didn’t want my speech to just be, like, ‘Here’s how it’s going, what’s next,’” she said. “I wanted it to resonate with every single person in my class because I wanted them all to feel seen.”
High school, she said, allowed her to gaze into a surprising passion—chemistry.
“Without high school, I would never have known that I love chemistry so much,” she said. “It’s my favourite. I’ve spent a lot of time just learning about it, and I really want to go down a science path.”
Solomon plans to study nursing at Dalhousie University, with the goal of working in the medical field. While post-secondary life is just a few months away, she’s focused for now on enjoying her final weeks at St. Timothy.
“I love high school,” she said. “Here I discovered my interests and met a lot of my lifelong friends. I’m excited for what’s to come.”
Her message to fellow graduates urges them to burn brightly for a future that is as vast as the cosmos.
“Don’t be scared," she said. "We all fail at some point. If we make a mistake or feel like giving up, that’s okay. We just have to pick ourselves back up and go for it.”
