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THE VALEDICTORY ADDRESS PRESENTED AT THE COMMENCEMENT IN SEPTEMBER
Mr. Chairman, Mr. O'Neill, Teachers of the Collegiate Institute, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am highly honoured to-night in that I have been given the privilege of speaking on behalf of my fellow students on this momentous occasion for the graduating class of Collingwood Col- legiate. What I will say has in all probability been said by graduating students in the past but what I say, I am saying in all sincerity and I know I am expressing the thoughts of every member of the graduating class. For the past five years this school
has been our home and no one ever leaves home without a sense of sadness. But time indeed marches on, marches much faster than most of us ever expected and so we must go out to face new prob- lems and to seek new opportunities. Before we leave, I would like to make a few observations and again I know that these ob- servations are identical to those of all my fellow graduates.
We the class of '52, have spent the last five years together walking up a narrow pathway to the door marked "Graduation." To-night this door has been opened to us and instead of another single pathway stretching beyond, we find myriads of pathways in all directions and we realize that each of us must choose his
or her own way. So, seeing that this may be our final meeting together, it might be well to look over the road we have just travelled and draw from that experience some conclusions as to what the future holds for us.
As we look back over those short five years, all the thrills
and joys and sorrows which we experienced then come flooding back
to us. We remember the first day at school and recall how nervous and proud we felt as we entered the big doors for the first time.
We cannot overlook the long nights of study which made us think
it was work like ours which inspired Longfellow when he wrote
"But they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night." Then there was our first Cadet Dance, and we recall how confidently we walked to our girl's house only to find that she had been transformed into a beautiful young woman whom we scarcely seemed to know. Next the excitement of the basketball and football games with cheerleaders and other students madly cheering our players to victory and how we then realized what is meant by school spirit and the pride in our school which goes with it. Finally there were the last big days when we wrote our upper school exams, knowing that
one slip might cause us to repeat the entire year, and our hearts were in our mouths for every moment.
Now this part of our education has been completed and we know that our work was not in vain for we have received the education which we sought and a training which will be of value to us for the rest of our lives.
We have received another group of benefits, not so obvious perhaps, but nevertheless of tremendous importance and influence upon our career.
I refer to such things as the ability to get along one with the other. To understand better the word "sportsmanship." To have clearer appreciation of the rewards which accrue to persev- erance and application. I refer to those intangible benefits
that mark for good, one's emotions and one's character, and the final and most important benefit which we have received is that we have been taught to think and to reason things out for ourselves.
Yes, although we have worked hard for them, we must admit that our rewards have been truly numerous and varied.
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