[Grad 11] Full Text of Sydney Comb’s Student Commencement Address

Hello and good afternoon ladies, gentlemen, mothers, fathers, siblings, extended family, administrative staff, professors and finally, cadets. To all, I would like to officially welcome you to the fourth annual International Space Station Cadet Graduation. We here at the station are extremely pleased that such a large crowd was able to attend even with the current meteor shower over Kentucky back on Earth. I, along with my fellow cadets, are thankful for your bravery in order to be here on such a momentous occasion.

Today is truly a day that we cadets have been dreaming about since first setting foot upon the station two years ago. The journey a cadet must endure in order to receive the prestigious ISS certification is truly an experience known only to those who must complete it. There is no way a cadet, such as myself, could fully express our adventures, trials, accomplishments, set-backs, victories, periodic frustrations, and joy felt at the space station to a non-resident. For instance, I could mention the obvious fact that the space station is, indeed, not a beach house; but I’m sure you wouldn’t quite enjoy it like our cadets or residential bear.

So, in order not to alienate our guest, please allow me to explain some of the marvelous adventures my fellow comrades and I have experienced thus far and what we will accomplish as our future lies within the reachable stars.

Many years ago, most of us cadets were born. Proud citizens of Earth we learned and we grew and we each proved to be special. Special not in the way where we ate glue or could levitate objects with our mind, but special because we were always looking toward the sky. While the other kids pretended to be astronauts, buzzing about with their arms outstretched, we were the ones building actual rockets in our parent’s garages out of pipe, wire, and old duct tape. It was through our fascination, drive, and raw talent that the ISS began to notice us. Then, before we knew it and after a flurry of applications and interviews, we were the chosen few, hand selected to begin early space exploration training. A few months later, we were packed into a small space traveler, ambivalent messes of anxiety and excitement.

And then we were here, adjusting to the gravity, getting use to our smaller, crowded quarters, and admiring the new perspective the station provided of our world. To all of us, whether we attended space camp or not, leaving Earth was an out of this world experience. Never before had our shoulders felt so heavy when they first activated the station’s gravity, nor had they felt so light when we successfully completed our first space walk. From intense games of moon Frisbee, fierce battles with the Galactic Lord CPS, Izzy-burrito space food, neon star-lit dances, to predicting the rotation of the ISS given mass and acceleration, we faced each challenge and experience together and without fear, never once holding back or flinching in the face of danger. Even during CATS testing, we proved our worth, and trust me, those feisty felines did not appreciate zero gravity.

In the end, after the research was conducted, space walks completed, flight hours logged, and our Alpha Clarity Telescoping—or ACT—skills assessed, we found ourselves being told that our time at the space station was drawing towards a close. That all of our work was finally going to pay off. That it was time to leave the ISS and become true space explorers. And so, brave as always, we boldly applied to all kinds of planet colonization missions. And as was expected, with the ISS’s superb training and aid from our commanders, we got the positions! The majority of us were offered seats to explore not only one or two planets, but five or six! They asked us not only to enlist but to lead the explorations and explorers, often offering room and board accommodations if we agreed. And we did! Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to say that all of us are planetary bound, due to depart in just a matter of months.

Our future adventures are as limitless as the night sky. We are all heading to foreign planets, each equally new, challenging, and exciting. It is here we will face all of the challenges the ISS has prepared us for, and knowing my fellow cadets, I am confident in everyone’s ability to succeed. But please remember, if you ever get lonely, or sad, or attacked by rogue, alien pirates, anyone of us would fly light-years in order to help. As Cadet Sean mentioned, we are a family in a unique way that only we will ever truly understand and I will miss all of you, and the station, terribly.

So now, I commend you! As cadet representative for the ISS, for your bravery, valor, honor, courage, and dedication, I now officially dub you all, Formal Cadets. Congratulations. May you be conquerors of the final frontier as you soar through the stars to infinity and beyond.

Good luck with your journey. Live long and may the force be with you.