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Validictorian Speech: "To thine own self be true..."
Alyssa Backs
for South Peace News
Notice how the grad class is now shifting uncomfortably, settling in as they are about to endure a horrible ordeal? That is because they know me and they recognize the implications of giving me unrestricted and more frighteningly, unlimited access to a microphone.
But it won’t be as bad as they think. I plan to stick firmly to my outline and have even scheduled in a five-minute break every hour for you all to reflect upon the wisdom of my speech.
… Oh, you laugh now …
Honoured guests, friends, family and fellow graduates, today we celebrate many things as we look towards the future. We celebrate that the administration of St. Andrew’s were suckers enough to let us in and only keep us for 12 years, but pass us on top of everything else.
We celebrate the loss of sanity that our parents suffered when they decided it would be a good idea to have children and apparently continue to ail from because they support us and love us no matter how badly we make them wish they could leave us at a gas station somewhere.
And we celebrate that the decisions are now up to us.
I am sure that in years to come when we look back on our time here, we will smile nostalgically wondering why (we) were in such a hurry to be rid of our youth and tell anyone younger than us about “the gold old days.” In fact, lots of us would have several good stories to tell.
My favourite being the day in Socials 20 when we were all discussing the amazing places we wanted to travel to and Jacob points to a spot on the map and says, “E-Kwa-Der, I want to go to Ekwader!” Much to the horror of Mr. Gillmor, we were forced to take pity on Jacob and explain that it wasn’t just a coincidence that ‘Ekwader’ appeared several times on a map along a straight line and the spelling of his country was strikingly similar to the spelling of the word, “Equator.”
Possibly our greatest regret is that we told him.
I would have loved to have been there when he tried to book a ticket to the Equator. But I guess there is always next year’s trip to the Tropic of Cancer.
Closely seconded by this memory of our school productions; not once did Jonah get on stage without cross dressing in at least one scene. Or the time Fox attempted to give a girl a compliment and substituted “beautiful” with the word “vast.” And that day in Science 7, when we told April why her jeans never got holes in them.
Then we will look back on the sadder times, the people who have moved away, the friends that we have lost touch with and the classmate we will never forget. We miss you, Richelle.
But just look how far we have come. Jonah is even wearing pants for this production!
We are ready to go into the world. We have had excellent teachers, amazing parents and all the love and support in friends that we could ever ask for. We’ve learned skills and heard the advice. Despite how we may have fooled you into thinking we were ignoring you, we listened to what you had to say and the experience you had to offer.
But, of all the advice we have received, this is my favourite. It is the advice Polonius gives to his oldest son before he ships off to France, in Shakespeare’s work, ‘Hamlet’.
Yet here, Laertes! Aboard, aboard for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay’d for.
There … my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in my memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion’d thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel but, being in,
Bear’t that th’ opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!
See! We are ready; that wasn’t Greek for at least half of us!
So, here’s to the end. To the beginning of our adult lives. To make mistakes that we will make and the hopes that our successes will outweigh them. Here’s to the future.
Goodbye.
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