Dan: Tonight, our grad-itude is to the grads for giving the honour of being valedictorians.
Nat: Thank you so much. As valedictorians, we get a year-long subscription to Reader's Digest. Anything that both my grandma and my dentist read is quality writing.
Dan: All joking aside, this was a huge gift and honour and we appreciate it more than you will ever know. This means more to us than any award, plaque, or scholarship, because it came from people we have so much respect and admiration for. We are truly humbled to be able to represent such a distinguished group of individuals.
Nat: There are many individuals we have to thank for this evening.
Dan: There are those who inspire, there are those who motivate, and there are those who make us believe that we truly can. But then there are our teachers, and there are all of the above.
Throughout all my schooling days never once have I been taught by a teacher that I disliked or did not get along with. I think that was because of my perception of what a teacher is. They are not there for us to impress so we can get a good mark and they are not bent on burying us with assignments, though in Grade 12 it did seem like that at times. And you have to ask yourself, why would an individual go through 13 years of school and then attend two to five more years of post-secondary education to come back to the very place that many of us are so eager to get away from? The answer has always been simple to me. They chose their path in life to help students like us choose ours, and that's how I looked at coming to school. Coming every day to see people that can help me. Who can teach me something new and prepare me for things I haven't seen yet. These individuals are not in it for the money or glamour of the job because goodness knows there's not much of either. They are here simply for us, and for that I think they deserve our deepest respect. Thank you does not give justice to the service you've given all of us. The classes and lessons are one thing, but your unique characters and ability to laugh has made high school complete.
Nat: Another gift we have in our lives is the gift of music. I got my bad day music, driving music, special songs with friends music, thought provoking music, like in school there are people for good times and bad, classes that challenged and taught us something, experiences that moved us. I was listening to Pink Floyd's Time. It goes: 'You are young and life is long, there is time to kill today. Then you find 10 years have got behind you, you missed the starting gun. So run to catch up to the sun but it's racing to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older, shorter of breath, one day closer to death.'
I have heard that song at least 100 times before today, but now I think I know what it means. Think of how fast these years have gone. What if the rest of our lives go by at this pace? Dare to dream and dream big. Every day try to become a little bit more passionate, and kind, even if it seems like most of your time is tied up with trivial things. No time is wasted if you try to enjoy it. Work hard at accomplishing your goals - set them for yourself, not anyone else - and work just as hard to enjoy the people and experiences you have along the way. I wish you failure to learn and grow from and success to enjoy because no matte who you are, where you're from, what you did, you deserve it.
I mean, I hope you get to play on a successful badminton team that places third in the Okanagan.
Dan: Isn't that because you played with your sister, who's in Grade 9?
Nat: She played with me! I also hope you have a chance to celebrate other people's successes. The biggest liability is the need to win all the time.
Dan: Failure and success is something I have wondered about for many years. As an individual I have always just strived for my personal best. I have competed in all areas of athletics, arts, and academics but I have failed to see the competition around and instead only found the competition within.
Society has coined success as making it big, getting that job up top or taking home first. But these things are either short-lived or become meaningless because eventually they reach a plateau where all those successes blend together and one doesn't mean much more than the last. This is what I believe is the root cause of why so many people feel inadequate and I think that is society's own failure. To me both success and failure go beyond grades on a paper, a boss's opinion, or an adjudicator's notes. I have learned that it's nice to have people hold you in high esteem for accomplishments, but the only person you have to truly strive to impress is yourself. Success is not holding the trophy at the end of the day but having pride in oneself throughout.
Nat: Perhaps the most defining moment in high school was the amalgamation of JP and KSS and now it's time to amalgamate to an even gibber community. The world. Two years ago we went from a small population to struggling our way through the halls, from mascots whose gender was easily identified to 'Arnold' and 'Sylvester She-lone', and suddenly having two buildings to deal with instead of one and the fate of the new scheduling system ensuring that all your classes would be in one building and your locker in the other. Walking up that hill, rain or shine, was just exhausting.
Now amalgamating with the whole world brings new challenges; trying to create our own independence and identity. Every day, our lives will merge with the lives of other people, and we're given a chance to determine the result: fight it, let it swallow us up, or take what opportunities are given to us and make the best of them.
I won't say this was the best time of our lives, and even if it was so far, I don't think anyone wants me to say that either. Let's try t make every day mor fulfilled than the last. If Pink Floyd were here he probably would ...
Dan: Pink Floyd is the name of a band, not a person.
Nat: Agree to disagree. If Pink Floyd were here, he would quote Canadian rockers Bachman-Turner Overdrive: 'You ain't seen nothin' yet. Ba-ba-ba-baby, you just ain't seen nothing yet' from the Class of 2005!
To the class of 2005, you are amazing people and we are happy to have shared this experience with you.
Dan: In the years to come, we know, your future's so bright.
