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LAST CLASS OF THE MILLENNIUM
Cathy Guiswite once wrote "Look at what you love on graduation day. Take the classes, the friends, and the family that have inspired the most in you. Save them in your permanent memmy and make a backup disk. When you remember what you love, you will remember who you are. If you remember who you are, you can do anything." This quote seemed particularly appropriate for tonight as we celebrate the time we spent togther at Collingwood Collegiate Institute .
Good evening parents, teachers, and fellow graduates and welcome to this prestigious ceremony. I am truly honored for the opportunity to speak to you tonight and I take great pleasure in representing the graduating class of I999, even though I'm as scared as a turkey at Thanksgiving.
Over the past month, many of us have experienced a great change. Some of us off to college, others to university, and some of us have taken up jobs in the real world. No matter what the case, I'm sure each new chapter in our lives have
brought mixed emotions that can be at times oveiWhelming.
To start off with, I would like to recall a recent experience I had as a university student. Picture this!
Myself, along with IIO other frosh from my faculty, are herded onto the front stairs of my residence building where we are led to believe that we are having a group photo taken. Okay, group picture with a bunch of strangers-surely that can't be so bad. EAAA! Wrong! Holy hanna was I in for a treat. Out of nowhere- about 50 upper year students, completely covered from head to toe in silver spray paint, wearing nothing but togas, charge at us screaming at the top of their lungs. They then proceed to smear us in Vaseline, cover us with about I0 pounds and make us sizzle like bacon the cement in the pouring rain, I tried to convince myself that weeeeee, this was just clean fun.
Ahight Jessy, I said to myself. I'm not scared- no way, I love this place. I'm just gonna run up to my room and get changed everything's gonna be fabulous. Now I don't know about you , but when I'm slightly scared or uncomfmtable I like to sing to myself. It makes me happy. So as I hopped onto the elevator and realized I was all alone, I decided to belt out one of my favorite commercials. You know, the Pepsi one with the little girl who says "Honey, you ain't seen nothing yet!" Ba ba ba ba ba! No, okay. Needless to say, when the doors to my floor opened there were about 15 students laughing hysterically at my singing talents. The elevators were not sound proof. Feeling embarrassed and scared, 1 decided that this was nothing a few
chocolate bars couldn't make better. So l ran to my room, lay on my bed and ripped open my Bulkbam ' Sma1ties. Having all these mixed emotions immediately brought me back to my first few days of grade 9.
Ah yes, my speech does actually relate to highschool. I can remember being a minor niner and not being able to open my locker. l can remember seeing Nick Comly prance around this very stage totally covered in blue, acting as the genie for Yasmine Kaun's speech. I can remember being terrified that my older brother , also known as big fat Bradley, was going to duck tape me and all of my friends to the wall. How could I forget Mr. Purdy at the front of the classroom showing us his impression of a vibrating molecule , like so. At this time I was nervous in not knowing what the future held for me and at the same time
excited for the new changes.
After reflecting on those early memories of
highschool, I suddenly felt great. Why did I feel b'feat? Because I knew that if university was anything at all like highschool it was just going to keep getting better and better. It's not a wonder that older people are always saying "Highschool, those good old days!" It's true. I am convinced that CCI has provided each and everyone of us with the absolute best highschool education a student could receive