Ethan, a senior in Texas, gave his valedictory speech at his graduation in May 2024 - it’s incredible! Hhre’s the whole speech…

“Good morning everyone! I’m really glad that you are all here. It truly is an honor to have the opportunity to speak before all of you today. To all the graduates, I have been so lucky to have been a part of this First to Four Class of Rock Hill alongside you all. Before anything else, I would like to deeply thank all the parents and caretakers that are at our graduation today. As students who are always looking forward to what’s next, it’s often easy to forget the people who have sacrificed such a great amount for us. You all have done so much to get us to this point--probably more than we’ll ever know--so thank you so much for all that you do. Next, it has been on my heart to share with you all a journey that I’ve been on for the last few years of my life, a journey that has had a lasting impact on who I am today so I hope you’re all able to take something away from it. I’ve always been someone who has searched for definitive truth. The definitive truth about who we are and what all this is around us. Where this journey begins is a part of my life where I was confident that everything about the world could be explained by scientific concepts and that every textbook had every answer. This is where the video picks up: I was confident that the only reason anyone believed in a creator or a god was because people just believe what they’re told. But in life, there has got to come a moment when you ask yourself “do I really care about the truth or am I just living in ignorance?” Because it did not take long when looking at just the impossibility of who we are for me to realize that it takes far greater faith to believe there is no creator or god, than to believe in one. The fact that there really is something here as opposed to nothing, the fact that we know scientifically that there really was a beginning to everything which cannot be explained by any physical principle, the immense complexity of life--all of these things, no matter how you look at them, really do point to a creator or a god. And I have realized over the years that to deny that would be to abandon logic because of, honestly- just pride. And when you study religious beliefs around the world, it is obvious that everyone agrees that our greatest problem is that our Creator is good and just and we really are not. I always thought of it like a judge in a courtroom. There is no doubt that we all have broken the law written on our hearts--we all have done things we knew were not right and yet did anyway—and I will be the very first to admit that. And if that judge is entirely fair, they must uphold justice and give us the penalty we deserve. And as I understood this, it’s confusing at first because almost every belief system argues that if I do good things or devote myself enough, then I will be justified. But that doesn’t work before a completely fair judge. You can be perfect before you commit a crime and you’ll still be guilty. And when I understood this, it honestly seemed hopeless because I realized that there was nothing we could do to justify ourselves. And then one day, I read about a Savior, a Savior who came for us all, and the questions I had been asking for so long were finally answered. I read the historical account from the Bible of a man named Jesus of Nazareth. I read that- yes, we all stand guilty before a perfect God, but there is exceptionally Good News and that is that God values us to such a great extent that he chose to make a way where there was no way. Knowing we were unable to save ourselves, He came as someone just like us, a historical figure named Jesus, lived the perfect life we didn’t, and yet took the punishment we rightfully deserved on a cross. The perfect Judge stepped down from His throne and paid our penalty Himself so that we can be legally forgiven. And by rising from His death, He proved that we longer need to fear the end of life because we have received the gift of forgiveness and life--and all we must do is accept it. And, man, I’ve told you all where I’ve come from, I used to be someone who laughed at people who talked about this, who laughed about people who believed this, but, like I said earlier, I have always pursued truth and I have looked into all this for a long time, and I tell you that of all I’ve read, of all I’ve studied, of all I’ve examined, I have never witnessed anything so beautiful, so perfect, so logically pure or historically defensible as this. And there really is power in this, ladies and gentlemen. God has given me a joy and a peace and a freedom that I’ve never known before. And I also want to say that we live in a place where it is very easy to just say that you believe this or that you are Christian, but to really live a life that is devoted to God is something entirely different. We all have to look at ourselves honestly and say “do I really believe this, or do I just say that I believe this?”. And to this Class of 2024, I say all of this to you today because, as we look past graduation, I know there's a lot of uncertainty and even anxiety relating to what these next few years of our life will look like. I certainly have felt this and I’m sure a lot of you have as well. But the reason we feel that way is because we were not meant to go through life alone, we were meant to go through it with our Creator. And there really is so much joy and freedom found in the presence of Christ which provides the greatest peace we could ever know. Thank you.”