Like many speeches, she began hers detailing a hardship and how she overcame it to get to where she was today.

“You are so much more than how well you perform,” she said. “If you place your identity in what you accomplish, and you believe you are only good enough if you succeed, what happens when you fail?” Owens questioned. “What happens when you don’t have a lot of money or you don’t have a lot of friends?”

Owens said she experienced a “reality check” when her mother, who she considered her best friend, died two years earlier.

“When tragedy struck my life, it was not my grades or my accomplishments that helped me navigate through that loss.”

“When everything else in my life felt uncertain the only person that I could depend on to stay the same was Jesus.”

Owens explained to WHNS how her mother was her biggest inspiration and “always encouraged me in my faith.”

“She’s 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.”

The teen continued to explain how after losing her mother her perspective of success “drastically changed, because I realized the many years I spent placing my worth in my academics meant absolutely nothing in eternity.”

Lydia’s 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.