{"id":1856,"date":"2023-08-12T21:21:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T21:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=1856"},"modified":"2023-08-12T21:21:02","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T21:21:02","slug":"valedictorians-faith-based-commencement-speech-goes-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=1856","title":{"rendered":"Valedictorian\u2019s faith-based commencement speech goes viral"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s graduation season which means there\u2019s plenty of words of wisdom being shared by commencement speakers.<\/p>\n<p>But one particular commencement speaker has gone\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.newsner.com\/community\/valedictorians-faith-based-commencement-speech-goes-viral\/\">viral<\/a>\u00a0for the speech she delivered to her fellow classmates. Lydia Owens, valedictorian of Woodmont High School in Piedmont, South Carolina, boldly inserted her faith into her speech.<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsner-d230cd7421ae57fdfbf79f931bf7274a\" class=\"newsner-d230cd7421ae57fdfbf79f931bf7274a newsner-bluebillywig_instream\"><\/div>\n<p>Like many speeches, she began hers detailing a hardship and how she overcame it to get to where she was today.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1664336908342665226&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fen.newsner.com%2Fcommunity%2Fvaledictorians-faith-based-commencement-speech-goes-viral%2F&amp;sessionId=5a5955537b2c0fcad074e23c43fdee6e07b7416c&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=aaf4084522e3a%3A1674595607486&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1664336908342665226\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cYou are so much more than how well you perform,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you place your identity in what you accomplish, and you believe you are only good enough if you succeed, what happens when you fail?\u201d Owens questioned. \u201cWhat happens when you don\u2019t have a lot of money or you don\u2019t have a lot of friends?\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsner-ab5b48d9c6b10976be263e809b3cc81e\" class=\"newsner-ab5b48d9c6b10976be263e809b3cc81e newsner-amp_article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"newsner-1212679617\" class=\"newsner-article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<p>Owens said she experienced a \u201creality check\u201d when her mother, who she considered her best friend, died two years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen tragedy struck my life, it was not my grades or my accomplishments that helped me navigate through that loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen everything else in my life felt uncertain the only person that I could depend on to stay the same was Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-34777 lazyautosizes lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-main.newsner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/08\/05220852\/studnet.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, 664px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-main.newsner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/08\/05220852\/studnet.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/cdn-main.newsner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/08\/05220852\/studnet-768x431.jpg 768w\" alt=\"Students\" width=\"1280\" height=\"719\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn-main.newsner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/08\/05220852\/studnet.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-main.newsner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/08\/05220852\/studnet.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/cdn-main.newsner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/08\/05220852\/studnet-768x431.jpg 768w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-eio-rwidth=\"1280\" data-eio-rheight=\"719\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Owens explained to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxcarolina.com\/2023\/06\/05\/graduation-speech-going-viral-speaking-out-christian-faith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">WHNS<\/a>\u00a0how her mother was her biggest inspiration and \u201calways encouraged me in my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsner-3679b376a3873a0a2dcf15f78216054c\" class=\"newsner-3679b376a3873a0a2dcf15f78216054c newsner-amp_article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"newsner-2080016319\" class=\"newsner-article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s the reason that I have such a strong faith. She was the example of how to be a Godly woman and how to love people intentionally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The teen continued to explain how after losing her mother her perspective of success \u201cdrastically changed, because I realized the many years I spent placing my worth in my academics meant absolutely nothing in eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lydia\u2019s speech was not your typical valedictorian speech, but I absolutely loved it! It added a different perspective to the meaning of success and how much pressure we put on ourselves to succeed.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-read-more\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">READ MORE:<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s graduation season which means there\u2019s plenty of words of wisdom being shared by commencement&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":54,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}