Page 69 - 2004

VALEDICTORY ADDRESS FOR THE OLD CURRICULUM GRADUATES 2002-2003
'Two mice fell into a bowl of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse fought and struggled until te churned that cream into butter and he crawled his way out. Tonight I am the second mouse."Ladies and gentlemen, staff and tudents, we are gathered here tonight to honour the graduating class of 2003.First off I would like to thank my fellow classmates or votirtg me to represent them as their Valedictorian and for that I am truly honoured.There are many special people that are here onight. Without their support and encouragement many of us would not be here tonight. I would like to give our thanks to our eachers, our friends, our family, and most importantly our parents, for without them none of this would be possible.Five years ago, ve began a magical journey, an adventurous time that we call high school. During our time spent in the halls of C.C.I. we met rundreds of people, made many friends, developed relationships, and as a result have memories that we will keep with us orever.And shall we remind ourselves of those memories? I think we shall. Who could forget the wicked school dances, or the ever o much fun Lip-Syncs, or even the awesome lunchtime events that the Student's Council would ever so graciously put on for our njoyment.I remember being in Grade Nine and my brother Nathan was on Council, and being such a nice guy, he thought it would ,e a great idea to pick me out of the crowd and make me go into the Jell-0 eating contest. This was a horrible idea, because ever since
was a kid and to this very day, I have disliked Jell-0 with a passion. What about the insane Iced Tea chugging contests, who could Jrget those? I remember in Grade Ten, I manned up and chugged some Iced Tea, and after a few minutes realised that I needed to o to the bathroom, to uh...wash my hands. Someone asked me to wait until he chugged so we could 'wash our hands' together. I ;aited for him, the urge to 'wash my hands' was increasing, and finally we continued on our way. We were in the hall outside the tudent's Council Office when I turned to him and said, "I don't think I'm going to make it... " Thenshabaam, Ihoaged, and my Iced
·ea made a guest appearance all over the 1the hall at that time, but those girls laughed 1y high school career, if not a fun one. But s a result of high school like school sports, mse of that. Or how many different and me pass by, or waste our pares, when we id. I know I can speak for myself and others arder, and made more effective use of my thigh school and say I had a great time.The ><ams, our journey came to an end and the ur goodbyes, many of us kept in touch, and lot of us we would not be reunited until this 11went our separate ways, whether it took us ·orld. But no matter what the path that we te best thing that we can do is to stay optimis- :we learned over the past few years that the rat people in this room will strive to be the
floor. Luckily only three other people were at me. Definitely a memorable moment in there are many great memories that I have and the awesome Rugby trips we had be- dumb ways we could find to make our lunch- should have been doing work, but we never when I say I could have worked a little time,butatleastihadfun,andcanlookback dayfinallycamewhenweall wroteourfinal experience of high school was over. We said others stayed as close as they could, but for very night. The end of summer came and we to University, College, or a job in the real havechosen,astherestofourcareersunfold tic. Though we may be struggling now, we effortwillbeworthit.Thereisagreatchance best in their chosen profession, and there is famous for what we have achieved. Right
real possibility that many of us will become
JW you might be sitting beside a future professional sports star, or a doctor who will find the cure for cancer, the future Prime linister of Canada, or even the greatest male stripper to ever grace the catwalk. We have all embarked on a journey that will )pefully lead us towards a brightfuture.Thoughlhave only been at University fora month and ahalf,Ihavelearnedagreatnumber :things. I now realise that University is by no means a cakewalk, and that high school is University's kid brother that was easy to .1sh around. But University isn't that difficulty for all people. I met a girl who has 9 hours of class, good for her, I have 36 hours, td more hours in one day then she does all week. So while she is out having a great time, I am in my room doing work. So University n'tthat bad for some people. Also I have discovered thatbeingabletodowhateveryou want, whenever you want isnotthegreatest
ing in the world, especially when you have work to do. Because if someone comes knocking on your door, and there is always 1meone knocking on your door wanting to go out, odds are you are going to drop whatever it is that you are doing and go have fun. ~cause I had my fun, I know have to stay up until2am and get up at 6am, just to get my work done, which I have done many times.! rve learned that ATM machines are the devil. But the most important thing that I have learned so far is that if you want to have rough money to eat properly and eat everyday, the only way to do this is to change brands.Over the past year, all of us have endured any hardships. Unfortunately as students we suffered the loss of a classmate, but for a great number of us we also lost a dear friend.I ~lieve this is why we should look back on our lives, and reflect. If our time on this Earth were to come to an abrupt end, could we mestly say that we made the best of everything with the time we had.With this being said, I urge you to take nothing for granted td cherish every moment spent with your friends or someone you love, because these are the things that cannot be put off until
morrow. They are also the things that you may never experience again and could lose forever.! leave you all with this, you can't live the past, no matter how hard you try, so make the best of the present and embrace the future with open arms, and try not to :anything or anyone stand in your way of achieving your dreams. Good luck to everyone in you future endeavours. mgratulations graduating class of 2003, we did it.Thank you all, and goodnight.
Adam Brady