Shelby County Schools Salutatorians have achieved a commendable accomplishment: they earned a place of honor in their senior classes with the second highest grade point average.
Wise quotes by famous individuals have inspired these scholastic achievers. They share some profound favorites:
Joel Speer
Craigmont High School
“You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
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– Louise Hay
Viktoria Paul
Kirby High School
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill
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Olivia Torres
Kingsbury High School
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure.”
– Suzy Kassem
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Whitney Yacob
Douglass High School
“To the misfits, the rebels the trouble-makers, the round heads in square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.”
– Rob Siltinen
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Anthony Miles
Ridgeway High School
“Don’t downgrade your dreams just to fit your reality. Upgrade your conviction to match your destiny.”
– John Assaraf
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Vivica King
Overton High School
“If you want a happy life, tie it to goals, not to people or things.”
– Albert Einstein
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Charlotte Cordero
Germantown High School
“We understand so much. But the sky behind those lights, mostly void, partially stars, that sky reminds us: We don’t understand even more.”
– Joseph Fink
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Jackson Danley
Central High School
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”
– John Muir
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Christopher Warner
Cordova High School
“Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own.”
– Jesus Christ
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Tenisha Ryan
Avon Lenox High School
“I can’t change the direction of the winds, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
– Jimmy Dean
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Srikrishna Dasari
White Station High School
“As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.”
– Albert Einstein
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Keondra Kirkendoll
Whitehaven High School
“Success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
– Vincent Lombardi
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Zaphoria Webb
Raleigh Egypt High School
“No matter how hard it get, stick your chest our, keep your head up, and handle it.”
– Tupac Shakur
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Kathryn Cooper
Memphis Virtual School
“Being a hero isn’t about letting others know you did the right thing. It’s about you knowing you did the right thing.”
– Max Tennyson
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Kerissa Rufus
Mitchell High School
“Do not fear failure. But please be terrified of regret. Giving up is the birth of regret.”
– Deshauna Barbar
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Andrew Jerome Franklin
Northwest Prep Academy
“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.”
– John C. Maxwell
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Millenia Calvin
Hollis F. Price High School
“God gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers.”
– Habeeb Akande
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Kevin Malone Jr.
Middle College High School
“It’s the one thing you can control. You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly.”
– Kobe Bryant
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Asia Wade
Hamilton High School
“Treat others how you want to be treated.”
– Luke: 6:31
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Alana Jacobs
East High School
“I don’t give any person that much power over my path…Not one person can make or break what I’m doing except for me or God.”
– Nipsey Hussle
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Kacy Brandon
Wooddale High School
“You can’t go bac and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
– C.S. Lewis
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Karen Orona
Sheffield High School
“You may not understand what I am doing now, but someday you will.”
John 13:17
– Jesus Christ
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Victoria Hall
Southwind High School
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
– Napoleon Hill
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Amber Smith
Trezevant High School
“Her resiliency to rise gracefully from the ashes, after being broken and burned. This is the true beauty of a woman.”
– Melanie Fiona
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Matthew Thomas
Westwood High School
“Death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.”
– Rev. 21:4
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Kya Cathey
Oakhaven High School
“Follow your heart and achieve your dreams.”
– Unknown
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Kayla Hawkins
Manassas High School
“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight that we force our wings to unravel and, alas, begin our flight.”
– C. Joybell C
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Jessie Wymore
Bolton High School
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
– Henry Ford
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Khadajah Kimbrough
Melrose High School
“Make up your mind that no matter what comes your way, no matter how difficult, no matter how unfair, you will do more than simply survive. You will thrive, in spite of it all.”
– Joel Osteen
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Quaila Brown
Booker T. Washington High School
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
– Colin Powell
