Please help with graduation speech

Make it short. If you have 10 minutes, take 3.

Break the ice by opening with a short very funny story where you're the butt of the joke. Don't bother if it's too long or not funny enough.

Don't use the time to thank anyone, you are speaking for the class, not yourself. Briefly cast the spell of siblinghood and unity even if you're convinced it's total horse hockey. It's part of the gig.

Finish by taking them to a higher plane in a simple way, tell them they're bigger than life. Maybe you'll want to give 'em St. Teresa's Prayer, which probably wasn't written by her, which is just as well because there are so many variations:

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which He radiates

compassion on this world;

Yours are the feet on which He is to go about doing good;

Yours are the hands he will use to bless others.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Thank them and get off the podium no longer than 5 seconds after they start clapping.

Don't ever think of yourself. Look into the eyes of one person at a time in the audience and speak to them, one on one.

i would try to keep it as general as possible , myself i would kinda steer clear of religious stuff. maybe nurses creed or something like that may be good though

Whoops...