RHP Senior Speeches 2025 – Mychela G. Class of ’25
Transcript
A week ago, a revolutionary I admired passed away; Nikki Giovanni, a writer I felt extremely partial to despite the fact we’d never met and were born decades apart. As I scrolled on Twitter, looking at all the dedications and memoriams honoring her beliefs and livelihood, I stumbled across a video of her reciting a poem entitled “My House” that she wrote in ‘72. The more I listened, the more tears pooled in my eyes as I recognized that this love poem was a reflection of my development and perfectly described all of the moments that led me to now.
Growing older in a world filled with so much, I’ve found myself gravitating towards think pieces and people who openly discuss things like love, vulnerability, and truth. However, I can’t say I’ve always been as intentional as I am now. In the past, I liked to stay in zones where I was comfortable and gravitated towards ideas that I felt were right; black-and-white thinking was my strong suit, and I was shameless about it. I pursued friendships with people who backed every idea I had, I suppressed many of my emotions which often resulted in blow-ups, and I was constantly overwhelmed with a sense of wanting more. And I remained this way for a few more years until 2022 when life became a little too real. I had just experienced my first little break-up, I was no longer enjoying writing the way I used to and I had just begun coping with the fact that my great-grandmother’s dementia was becoming worse. During this time, not only did I find that my old ways of fronting and pretending that I didn’t need any help weren’t working but the friendships I had at the time were only fueling my pride.
Feeling as unfulfilled as I was, I’d begin seeing a therapist where conversations of being open and intentional came up. In the beginning, I was so embarrassed that I had been vulnerable with a stranger but I found the more I did, the more space opened up in my mind for new ideas. I found comfort in things like reading pieces from bell hooks, Nikki Giovanni, and James Baldwin that discussed the importance of all things love, honesty, and community. Practicing photography creating images that felt true to me and finding space to honor my great-grandmother in a way that still allowed me to grieve would become my favorite pastimes. When it came to my friendships, my community gradually began to form before my eyes. The familial bond I had been yearning for has come in the form of witty, graceful, and extremely hormonal women who could talk about anything without judgment being in the picture. The emotional distress I had been experiencing prior had begun to slowly fade away as a new set of values began to set in. Each day, I’d get up feeling a little less defeated than the day before, until I began to feel more fulfilled than I had in the months before.
In these past few years, finding that development isn’t rational or irrational has allowed me to gradually make space for all of the beneficial things in life. I certainly am not the poster child for progression but it’s things like Giovanni’s poem or the endless conversations I have with my girlfriends that give me the chance to reflect on how far I’ve come. While I am not literally in the kitchen trying to withstand the heat or declaring a revolution by smiling at old men, I feel that many times if I can claim control of all the things that are tangible around me, I am truly climbing up that ladder and being more intentional than I had been before.
Shoutouts
To Meazi, Aurora, Terell, and Mimi, I want to thank you each for being the best versions of yourselves. Building relationships with each of you has meant more to me than all four years of my high school experience. If I could find a word to describe my love and appreciation for each of you, I’d use it. I wish you a fulfilling end to your high school years and a graceful beginning to adulthood.
To Devin, I knew the second I saw you and your extremely long shoes, I would make you my friend. All the laughs, night walks that involved shady jokes, and niche references barely scratch the surface when it comes to our friendship. Without you, I think I’d still be struggling with where to direct my energy and what trade really is. I can’t wait for you to blow up in the modeling industry, marry rich, and fly me out to Italy to twerk on a yacht! There isn’t much else to say other than that I love my husband more than any man in this entire world!
To Mrs. C, this paragraph will never express everything I could say about you. From your values and beliefs to our conversations, I see so much of the woman I wish to become in you. In the past, I can say I have resented your optimistic outlook on even the most negative things, yet I admire this outlook so much because I know that it could restore the world as we know it. For being the dedicated, attentive, and always running somewhere person you are, I’d give you everything and more. Thank you for caring for me like no other, affirming me at my worst, and supporting me like I am Beyonce. For letting me get away with all the wild things I say, I will be sure to put you in my will, love you down queen.
To the ladies of my life, Big Van and Madisen. The Maya Wilkes and Lynn Searcy to my Toni Childs. I look at our friendship and I think, man we would’ve outdone the entire cast of Waiting to Exhale. I can remember the time I was talking to my therapist about feeling unfulfilled in my friendships and how I yearned for true sisterhood. She transformed into Miss Cleo quickly and told me the right time was now and before I knew it, we were sitting in Coco’s alone bussing down several tacos and being way too loud for restaurant volume. I thank God every day for blessing me with women who are not afraid of self-evolution and truth, women who walk around with the utmost finesse, women who set the record straight even if it means feeling uncomfortable, women who make me whole and bring me back down to earth when I am truly on one. A sisterhood like this is a bond I hope our children will share and one that we will continue to nurture as we grow older. Thank you for loving me in all my entirety, I love you both very much.
To the Queen of Compton, my mother. I don’t believe I’ll ever know love as special as yours. You have truly set the tone for what overcoming, persevering, and bossing up looks like. You love me like no other and you are truly the best to ever do it. Growing older and understanding more, I see much of myself becoming you and much of you becoming Zz. You are absurdly hilarious, unserious, and continuously loud and wrong but I’d stick beside you if my life depended on it. There are no relationships that are ever perfect however, I can say that the rare moments in time that I get the slightest idea of you and that nursing home will never amount to the rest that I imagine celebrating, embracing, and spending the rest of my life with you. Thank you for trusting me, loving me at my worst, letting me get away with provocative innuendos, and being authentically you. God willing, I’ll be able to give you the world and more just as you’ve done for me. I love you are three words that will never amount to how much I care for you; but in the end, I really do love you.
– Michela G.