Valedictorian Speech With Dr. Seuss Quote 6l503y

Valedictorian Speech Rummy M.

Good evening respected guests and of the community, staff, family, friends and fellow graduates. I am absolutely honoured to be standing here representing the graduating class of 2008. On behalf of the graduates, I would like to thank you for ing us on this auspicious occasion. Graduation is a time of reflecting on the past and looking onward to the future. It is a time that we, as graduates, get together for one last hurrah before moving on to bigger and better adventures. This year we have a very unique and exceptional group of students who are graduating. We have been through so much together and have changed and grown together. As we look back on five amazing years, it is easy to see that Delview has played an instrumental role in helping to shape the young men and women we are today. Five years ago, we walked in to this very room, mind you it was a tad smaller, but back then so were we, and we had no idea what to expect from this middle school. We thought it was a stepping ground to the real goal, high school. We were timid grades 8’s who were lucky to find our way to class on time. Friendships quickly developed between students from, once rival, elementary schools. This was an exciting time in our lives. We were given new privileges, as well as new responsibilities. And then came grade 9. By now, those new friendships were stronger and no one even ed which elementary school you came from. You now belonged to Delview. However, at the end of grade 9 we were given the choice of making this place our home away from home for the next three years. We each made a decision that would forever affect our lives. We decided that we would rather stay here, at Delview, than walk 9 blocks down the street to North Delta. At first, I was quite unsure about this decision. I can now look back and honestly say that I have definitely made the correct decision of staying here. I am sure that this is true of all the graduates here today. We spent grade 10, with fewer people, but nonetheless we worked hard in school and played harder on the soccer fields and basketball courts. Grade 11 was a year that we used to experiment. We tried new haircuts, made new friends, had new parties and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. That brings us to grade 12. Everyone always told me, “grade 12 goes by fast,” but I never imagined it would be this fast. One year. One last year and what a year it has been. We finally did it. We completed 13 years of education, in my case 14 – I had to go to preschool twice. We finally completed grad transitions and here we are all together for the last time. That definitely puts a lot of pressure on me. When you enter Delview, you can see our school motto: ‘The small school with the big heart.’ The first time I saw this, I thought ‘That has to be the cheesiest thing I have ever read.’ However, the more I thought about it, the more real it became. There is something truly wonderful about this school. There is something amazing about walking down these halls and being able to name each and every face. There is something remarkable about the way the entire student body gets excited over one night of can collecting in the rain. Page 1 of 4

There is something most definitely unique about Delview. It doesn’t have to do with the five years of construction. It doesn’t involve teachers who have never taught you, telling you to take out your headphones. It’s not the fact that students are on a first name basis with the custodial staff. It’s all of that combined and more. There is a magic at Delview that is unique to this school and we have been so fortunate in experiencing this magic for 5 whole years. To the grads of 2009, take this magic and honour it. As most of you know, I am not the most profound person in the world. In fact, when I was trying to find inspiring quotes for this speech, I came across many that I simply I couldn’t understand. Fortunately for me, there was one man who summed up my ideas perfectly and as a bonus, his ideas rhymed. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go. Although it is pretty self-explanatory, I think Dr. Seuss hit the nail on the head. For the past 13 years of our lives, we have been given information and knowledge and it is now time to put it to good use. Our teachers and s have equipped and prepared us for our futures which begin as we step out of these doors for one last time. This September, we won’t be coming together for the first day of school, as we have done year after year after year. We won’t be excited to see our new schedules, meet our new teachers and see everyone wear the new runners that our parents said were too expensive to buy. We each chose a path and, whether it begins tomorrow or in September, things will never be the same again. We have made bonds between friends that will never be broken. We have made memories that will last a lifetime. As we end one glorious chapter of our lives, a new one begins. We have a fresh blank page ahead of us. It is up to us to grab our pens and write our own stories. I ask you grads to take this opportunity to write an unforgettable chapter filled with the fulfillment of your dreams and desires. Let us take what we have learned and let it guide us through to our futures. Let us build on our experiences to better ourselves and others around us. We hold the key to our own futures. There is a lot of power inside of us waiting to be unleashed. Getting a diploma tonight is not the end of graduation but rather the beginning of something special. It is the beginning of new adventures, new friendships and, most importantly, more parties.

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I would like to say a special thank you to the hardworking staff at Delview. There is no other staff that knows almost everyone by name. And not just because of the several dozen late slips we have accumulated over the years. They have been influential in helping us get to this day. Thank you. It takes a truly special person to be a teacher. Delview is lucky enough to have some of the most special teachers in the world. There is not a more caring group of teachers out there. They push you to your limits because they can see what you are really capable of even if, sometimes, you, yourself, are unable to see it. They have helped me, as well as my fellow graduates, to get to this day. They have been an integral (IN-TRUH-GUL) part of learning inside the classroom as well as outside of it. In the end, it’s not about quizzes or test marks. It’s about you have gained as person that truly matters. It’s about learning more about yourself and trying to better yourself. I think that the teachers here have tried their best to teach us this valuable lesson and, for that, I would like to thank them. This commencement ceremony can be as difficult for our parents as it is for us, the graduates. This morning our parents woke up and got ready to see their children graduate from high school. This is a day that is eagerly anticipated yet one that brings at least a few tears. After tonight, they will no longer be parents of children but rather parents of young men and women who will be sent, well prepared, into the real world. Their jobs as caretakers are relatively over and it is time for them to step aside and let our true colours shine through. I have been so blessed to have parents who helped me in every way possible to get to this day. I have also been raised by a set of grandparents who have never stopped giving their love and inspiring me to make my dreams come true. I would like to take this time to thank everyone, big and small, who has helped each and every one of us to get here. Whether it is a parent, a grandparent, a guardian, an aunt, an uncle, or a neighbour, you have inspired and made it possible for us to get here. A generous thank you is well deserved. With a little help from my TI-84 I have calculated that we have spend, on average, 318 minutes a day in class. Over the past five years, we have attended, or should have attended, about 935 schooldays at Delview. This adds up to a whopping 4,955 hours spent working on Math, Science, English, Socials, and the works. That does not include the numerous hours spent on homework, studying and exams. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde wrote, “Education is an irable thing, but it is well to from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught.” The first time I read this I completely agreed. Never, in my entire life, will I need to know how to inverse the reciprocal of a parabola. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is what Oscar Wilde intended. I believe he was referring to something else. There is something, much stronger and more valuable, than any formula we could ever have learned in Chemistry. It is a special type of bond. It is not ionic but it is just as powerful. The gift of friendship is something that can never be taught. It is something that is experienced. I have been so fortunate in experiencing this gift with some of the most amazing people in the world. We have laughed together. We have cried together. We have laughed so hard we were practically crying together. My friends have been there for me when I have needed them the most and I for them. We have had our ups and downs but, in the end, there is nothing more special than staying up all night in order to watch the sunrise together, even Page 3 of 4

if it doesn’t come up. If, by now, we haven’t learned the gift of friendship, then we really haven’t learned anything at all. It doesn’t have to involve spending every waking moment together. It a gesture, big or small, that shows someone that you care about them and that you appreciate them being in your life. I know that my fellow graduates have formed this special friendship. We are all very diverse and distinct in our beliefs and ideas but when you put us all together, something amazing happens. It takes important events to realize that we won’t have a second chance to do this next year. We need to seize our opportunities today. I believe that this is something we have all done extraordinarily well. A truly inspirational teacher once told me not to be the person that others expect me to be but rather be the person that I want to be. I cannot think of anything better to ask of my fellow graduates than this. I hope you all live your live your lives to your hearts’ content and that you take the path in life that leads you to the most happiness because, in the end, that’s all that matters. For our futures, I hope that our worries stay small and that all our dreams reach the stars because the sky’s the limit. To the graduates, there is no better advice I can give than to quote the great Miss. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus, “take chances, make mistakes and get messy.” Congratulations grads of 2008! This is our time to shine!

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