And so it begins…

June 26, 2017 by cycworker 1 Comment

It’s officially the end of the school year. Tomorrow I’ll be at the Port Theatre, watching the John Barsby graduating class of 2017 as they a take the stage. As always, it will be a great honour to be able to address the students. I am happy to say that I finished writing & proofreading my speech on Sunday night, which is a record for me. I am a bit of a perfectionist, and sometimes – many times – that manifests itself through procrastination. In February I took part 1 of spritual growth program & identified that bad habit of mine, and in part two, which I am currently participating in, I began really tackling the issue.

So that said… despite the fact that the speech is written, I don’t think it’s right to share it with my blog readers until the students themselves have heard it. I will, however, share the speech I gave to the Dover graduates in 2016, which I forgot to post last June.  I was  (maybe still am?) a little self-conscious about the fact that I used the Jack Layton quote again, because I work really hard to find different ones each year. But for some reason, that particular one just felt right, again.

Spoiler alert: I did NOT use it in this year’s speech.

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Good afternoon staff, parents, family, friends distinguished guests, most importantly, the graduating class of 2016. It is a privilege to bring you greetings on behalf of the Board of Trustees of School District 68. Of all the many tasks I’m asked to perform in my role, it’s events such as today that bring me the most joy. And today that joy is mixed with a profound sense of pride, because I have known a number of you for so long, and in fact, I’m related to one of you. The kids who know me likely remember that I’m slightly obsessed with pictures & scrapbooking. I have a lot of memories of many of you, from track meets and ball games to assemblies and holiday parties; so many that at one point I considered that a slide show to accompany these words might be fun. But my hope is that you’ll all still be speaking to me by the time this day is over, so in the end I reconsidered that approach. That said, I’ve been waiting almost 18 years for this day, and I’m I wee bit sentimental at the best of times….  

But seriously… as I prepared for this day, 3 things came to mind

The first is that memories matter. So I ask you today to do something that’s a little bit contrary to the messages our society gives us. Stay in the moment today. Today really is the first day of the rest of your life. Don’t think about what you’re going to do tonight, or the long weekend. Stay in this moment, and truly reflect on all you’ve accomplished. As Robert Fulghum once wrote, “Every person passing through this life will unknowingly leave something and take something away. Most of this “something” cannot be seen or heard or numbered or scientifically detected or counted. It’s what we leave in the minds of other people and what they leave in ours. Memory. The census doesn’t count it. Nothing counts without it.”

The second is that although I am absolutely sure each of you worked as hard as you could to get to this day, you didn’t get here alone. As someone once said, No man is an island. Each of you has had at least one person – if you’re lucky, maybe more than one – who has encouraged you, supported you, invested time & effort into you… And in a society that often puts a lot of emphasis on individualism, it’s easy to take that for granted. So my final assignment to you? Don’t do that.  Take the time, over the next few days, to thank those people, be it parents, other family members, former teachers, secretaries, coaches…all of those interactions played an integral part of making you the person you are today, and they’re part of the foundation that will help as you take your next steps into the adult world.

And that leads me to my final point. I remember my own graduation, feeling a tremendous pressure as all these speakers blathered on about how we should change the world. How could I live up to that? And as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized something – it isn’t about the career you choose. The legacy you will leave, when it’s all said and done, is not in what you do, or what you have, but in who you ARE. We are meant to be more than what we do – there’s a reason we’re referred to as human BEINGS, not human DOINGS. In the words of the late Jack Layton, Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So be hopeful, loving and optimistic. And you will change the world.

 

Thank you