GED A TICKET TO RIDE INTO THE FUTURE

Editor's Note: The following is the keynote speech given by Rick Sinclair of Sikeston at the GED graduation this past August.

I'd like to thank everyone for coming out this afternoon for the graduation ceremonies. I'm like most of you, I don't like to sit through long boring speeches on a day like today, but I do love giving them.

Actually, as you'll soon realize, I'm not much of a public speaker, believe it or not, even though I do work in radio and have for the last 12 years. As a matter of fact, very little can be said about me personally, so I'll pass around my rap sheet. Just make sure I get it back.

When Elly Knight asked me to be one of the guest speakers today, my first question was why? I never have considered myself intelligent. I don't have a computer, I'm not on-line, I never surf the Internet. I guess you could say in the kingdom of technology, I'm a 40-watt bulb. But in Elly's words, she wanted someone who had been where most of you are sitting today. It's OK to have someone with a Ph.D. or master's degree up here today to say congratulations, but I have to agree it probably means more to most of you to know that it's not over today. You'll leave here with your diplomas in hand with a new future. A brand new future you've never had before and a realization of hope and fortitude your family and friends have never seen before. Like I said, I know, because I've been right there.

I'm sure you all have your reasons for being here today. There are probably as many different reasons as there are graduates. I had my own reasons and I have better insight as to what you've been going through to receive your diplomas.

In 1974 I quit school during the Christmas vacation of my junior year of high school to help my father in a struggling small business. I was sixteen at the time and thought it was cool. Making my own money...sort of being my own boss and all. But a few months later, I realized things weren't really all that cool.

The first thing I noticed was a lack of friends. Everyone I was used to hanging around with at ball games and after school were still doing their thing. I was working late.

Next came the struggles of operating a business on a shoestring while my father had to go to work driving a truck just to make ends meet at home. Imagine a 16-year-old trying to keep a garage open when there's absolutely nobody in the country that would leave their $20,000 automobile for repairs. It didn't take long to see business driving by instead of in for repairs. Besides that, I had no way of keeping up with the latest advances in technology in cars at that time. But I still kept working late.

After looking at where I was during the summer months of 1975 while my friends were enjoying their summer vacations, I was working late.

So I decided to go back to school during what should have been my senior year to try to get enough credits and a year and a half crammed into one year. You probably guessed I couldn't do it. Even by working late.

When I went through the graduation ceremonies at Sikeston senior high school, nobody knew all I got was an attendance certificate. No diploma.

But at that time I thought, So what? Who'll know? Who's going to ask to see my diploma? Why would a mechanic need an education? Who's to say that a diploma is a ticket to ride? Who really cares if I have no high school diploma?

In August of 1975, I moved to Southern California with my pregnant new bride. We arrived in Riverside, Calif. at 3:30 in the morning and slept in a grocery store parking lot in our 1963 Buick with everything we owned on top of the car and $20 to our name. By the way, did I mention that my wife was three months pregnant? At 6 that morning I set out on foot looking for my first job in Southern California.

Of course, every job application I filled out, I had to lie when it came to the education part. I said high school graduate. It was easy. With the stroke of the pen I was a high school graduate. I thought it would be just as easy to put college graduate but I was afraid I'd be put to the test by giving some comment on the national debt or something, so I just left it at high school. But imagine how easy it was to be a high school graduate. Me a high school graduate. I was so proud just to say it...a high school graduate...I'm a high school graduate. I'm a husband...I'm almost a father of a child and I'm a high school graduate...I am a liar.

I'm a liar to my wife and child, I'm a liar to my prospective employer, I'm a liar to society and most importantly I'm a liar to myself. I have no diploma. I have no ticket to ride. I have no visible means of proving my worth to society. And the worst thing was I have no future!

The man that gave me my first job in California was Chuck Spies. A Chevron Service Station pumping gas. Chuck knew I was a high school drop-out. I somehow got the courage to tell him before he hired me. I truly believe it was my honesty that won him over. That's when I learned that not only did I have to be honest with other people, I had to be honest with myself.

I really knew deep down that to feel like a man worthy of being, I had to prove to myself that I could get a high school diploma. I'm sure a lot of you felt the same way. You've probably lied to someone to get a job. You've fooled pretty much everyone at work or church or maybe you've never mentioned the fact that you didn't have a high school diploma. So who knew? Who cared?

Apparently, you did. Or maybe your spouse, or your employer. But the fact is, you're here today as proof that you can do it.

I know how that feels, too. Working all day, going home long enough to eat, then to school with people younger than you, older than you. Afraid to admit that you're going to school to get your diploma. At times wondering if it's worth all the trouble. Wondering if you have what it takes to make it.

As living proof, I can honestly say it can be done. It's hard work, but it can be done.

I'm reminded of the traveling Bible salesman who was being honored one year for being the top salesman in his state for having sold over 10 million Bibles in one year. The amazing thing is that he had a bad stuttering problem. After the awards ceremony, he was questioned by one of his colleagues about his ability to sell so many Bibles with his stuttering problem. He said, "WWWWWWell, I go to the ddddddoor and IIIIII ssssssay, dddddddo you wanna bbbbbbuy this Bible oooooor do you wwwwwwant me to rrrrrread it to you.

In closing, I'd like to say I've always been a science fiction nut and one of my most favorite movies has been "Back to the Future." Thinking about how many times I'd love to go back and forth in time. The last episode of the final movie has Doc Brown telling Marty McFly about the future. He says the future is not written. It will be whatever you want it to be and whatever you make of it. So make it a good one.

So from one fellow graduate to another, good luck in your future. Make it a good one.

Graduating class.......Congratulations.

Thank you very much.