Speech 2016

This is a poem, song, and rap all in one for the Detroit International Academy for Young Women's Valedictorian Speech for the Class of 2016. Video of performance included.

We made it
We survived
Now we're onto the next step of our lives
Every single one of us
We can strive
Never satisfied until we take that dive
Down inside our education
Making sacrifices for our grades and
Feeling alive just waiting
For tonight our graduation!

We're aiming high
Behaving fly
Dress so white
Brains' so bright
Up on the stage y'all making me blind

We're in this fight
To do what's right 
In spite of downright uptight suburbanites 
Saying we can't reach these amazing heights

But here we are ladies
Here we are
Inner city kids reach over the bar
Put on your shades y'all
We are superstars!

Together
As one
We. Have. Won.
Don't think that that means that we're done
The reign of our queens has just begun

Like a gold crowned family
We can bicker and argue and disagree 
But at the end of the day we will always be
The fantastic, stupendous, marvelous, splendid, stupendous, superb, outstanding, amazing Class of 2016!

Who knows what we're going to be doing in a few years?
Some of us getting our masters degrees
Some of us serving the world
Some of us losing touch
With classmates that we'd miss so much
Remembering that we would pull all nighters with each other
Doing our homework together
Wondering if in college we'd survive

And we would talk all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
I keep, keep thinkin' times'll never change
Keep on thinkin' things'll always be the same
But when we leave this year we won't be comin' back
No more hangin' out 'cause we're on a different track
And if ya got somethin' that ya need to say
You better say it right now 'cause you don't have another day

As we go on 
We remember
All the times we've
Had together
And as our lives change
Come whatever
We will still be 
Friends forever
​
And like the president Barack Obama ended his final speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner
I would like to end my final speech as a senior of Detroit International Academy for Young Women with just saying thank you.
I am so proud of every single one of you
It has been an honor and  a privilege to work side by side with you to strengthen our bonds of friendship.
So now
With the power vested in me
As the Valedictorian of the class of 2016
I now have two more words to say:

Oh Hawa Out!

-​Hawa Rahman