Page 127 - 2002

Valedictorian Speech- Oct. 200 I By Josh Moore
In the beginning, the basis oflife at CCI was a simple one. High school was a new page in the book of possibilities.
However, youthful optimism fades quickly when you find yourselfback at the bottom ofthe food chain. Wandering through the vast maze of hallways and corridors seemed, at some moments, a very daunting and ominous task. Hallways strewn with pennies and lost souls holding wrinkled timetables were common sights. Oh, how those seniors must have laughed at us, so small, insignificant, and pitiful.
But, now look at us- strong, tall, and infinitely wise. We know now not to come to school dances at 8 o'clock to wait for the doors to open and, consequently, be the first ones to stand as far away from the centre o f the gym as possible . We know now that the cafeteria ' s French Fries and Gravy are not part o f a balanced diet. And we now know that although track pants were not cool in grade nine, anything can be cool when your in your last year of high school, even bed head, bad breath, and the forbidden tracksuit. Yes, it is clear that we have learned many valuable pieces of wisdom from our many, many years here at good old CCI. We have gained the knowledge ofour predecessors and together we have survived this black and gold challenge. We have battled our way through two years of insightful TAG in true fighting owls' style, right out the door and home for an early lunch. We have survived hours and hours of highly entertaining morning announcements. We have persevered through the excessively long locker lectures and snowball talks, standing for what seems like eternities in the hall for the sole purpose of increasing our unfortunate inability to be punctual. We have all found ourselves on the long route to and from the bathroom and have all used the phrase, "Umm, can I go to talk to my friends in th-1, I mean, can I go to get a drink?" For this we should be proud, we have completed another milestone in our lives. We can now call ourselves true fighting owls- yeah, we are the best dam CCI hooters ever.
In that regard, I'd like to thank everyone here for their insightful suggestions for this speech. "Make it funny, make it serious, do your dance, mention my name, I saw a good valedictorian speech on Dawson's Creek." For this I thank you.
And to all the parents, you can thank my mom and dad for pre-editing my speech to take out some of the more questionable aspects of this address. I can honestly say that writing this speech to satisfy over 200 students and twice as many parents, grandparents and teachers was one of the hardest things that I' ve ever had to do. It was hard because we are all different. We are all individuals, we all have different experiences, we all have our own expectations for life, and we all have our own goals.
We may not like the same foods or share the same interests, but there will always be things that we have in common. We have all grown up together, both physically and emotionally and shared our good times and bad. To think ofall that has happened to us within these walls and all ofthe things that we have learned, is mind boggling.
It is obvious that CCI has been an integral part of our development as adolescents. Now, the key to remember is that no matter where we end up in life we ill always have these memories to look back on. We will always be able to reminisce about our years at CCI and know that these were some of the best years of our lives. Likewise, you can count on the fact that we are entering a new era, with new memories andnewexperiencesthatwillbecomesomeofthebestmomentsofourlives. Ichallengeallofthe graduates to be strong in whatever path you take. We have a lot to look forward to in the future; our entire adult lives have yet to begin.
As I stand here looking at all the wonderful people in this room today, it is clear that CCI has given us an excellent foundation for a fantastic future. In fact, there is so much potential in this room today that in 5, 10, or 20 years, the people who are sitting right next to you might become some ofthe mo.st famous people in the world, and you'll be able to say, "That person was in my graduating class!"
But, no matter where we end up in life, or who we become, I know that we can all take comfort in the fact that we will share the memory of this humid gymnasium, this black and gold stage, and our friends, parents, and teachers seated side by side, forever. Because tonight we are all united as one, tonight we are unified as the Collingwood Collegiate graduating class of200 1.
Thank you.
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