It is often said that children are our future, and looking at the students in the Class of 2008 graduating from local high schools, our future looks very bright.

Whether they took a traditional route through Arlington, Darrington, Lakewood or Marysville-Pilchuck high schools; or a non-traditional route such as Weston, Tulalip Heritage, Mountain View or the Arts & Technology high schools; or attended private schools such as Highland Christian and Grace Academy – this year’s crop of seniors are as diversified as the schools they attended.

At The Globe and The Times we’ve had the opportunity over the past years to report on the many wonderful things these great kids have done for their schools and their communities. They have set a standard for all the graduating classes to come.

Some of the graduates will go on to college, some will go directly into the workforce – all can be proud of what they accomplished.

To celebrate all of the students’ accomplishments, we thought we’d share with you a few of the graduation speeches given by some of the local Valedictorians as they were not only speaking about themselves, but about their peers as well. We would have loved to share all of the speeches by all of the Valedictorians, but space would not allow that.

The speeches are filled with some humor, some reflection, but mostly with optimism of the great things yet to be experienced. They should not only serve as an inspiration to their fellow students, but to us as well.

To contact a member of The Marysville Globe/Arlington Times editorial board — Stuart Chernis or Scott Frank — e-mail forum@marysvilleglobe.com.