Well, my part of the graduation festivities for our grade twelve students, small as it is, has been completed. This afternoon I was part of the platform party for the John Barsby Community School Class of 2017. The ceremony was absolutely lovely. There was a fantastic slide show, two beautiful musical performances, and a poignant, yet funny valedictory address.
As always, I will share with you what I wrote for the graduates. Special thanks to my mom and to Robyn Gray, who is part of our senior District administration, for their assistance in determining how to modify the poem I used at the end.
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Good afternoon staff, parents, family, friends distinguished guests, most importantly, the graduating class of 2017. It is my profound honour to bring you greetings on behalf of the Board of Trustees of School District 68.
First of all, I want to say how incredibly proud I am of each and every one of you. I consider it the greatest privilege of my role as a Trustee to be able to be here and share this day with you. Although I work hard to have a unique message every year, there are two things I have to say that I will repeat until someone tells me I can’t anymore. One – as much as you may feel like you want to hurry through today’s proceedings, try not to do that. Savor this moment. You’ve earned it. And consider yourself lucky you didn’t have 800+ kids in your grad class. Two – as hard as you worked to get here, to become the person you are today – you didn’t do it all by yourself. Many adults: Family, friends, teachers, coaches, neighbours, and others – have supported & encouraged you along the way. Take even just a few moments to find one or two and thank them for their efforts. It matters.
High school, in my opinion, can best be summarized by the immortal words of Charles Dickens, at the start of A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I can’t begin to imagine the wealth of memories that you are taking with you, both bitter and sweet.
You may think that because you are only one person, that what you do doesn’t make a difference. But it does. There’s a story I first heard years ago about a man who sees a boy throwing things into the ocean. The man approached the child and asked what he was doing and the boy explains he’s tossing starfish back into the ocean, because the tide was going out and he didn’t want them to die. The man laughed & pointed out that there were too many for him to make a difference. The boy listened politely, picked up another starfish and as he did so, he stated: “I made a difference for that one”
As I’ve pondered, over the past few months, what I wanted to say to you today, I’ve thought about many things. I must return to Dickens for a moment: He continued, after that famous first line, to note that, “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us:”
That was written in 1859, and yet it’s just as true today. For every challenge you face, you will also be faced with an opportunity.*
As hard as it is to stay positive and hopeful, try to remember that there is no light without dark.It is the bad times in life that will help you appreciate the good times, and the good times which will give you the strength and resilience to get through the bad times.
A few of the young men graduating today played floor hockey with me back when you were in elementary school, and maybe even in grade 8. I said to you back then that when you remembered your time with us, you wouldn’t remember who scored that sweet goal, or the final score of any of the games. You’d remember the fun and the camaraderie and the sense of being part of a team. Life is a lot like floor hockey, gang. It’s a team sport. And as important as it is for you to contribute your skills and your talents, what’s even more important is who you are. It’s how you treat people. Be the change you wish to see in the world. One way to do that is to strive to live out, every day, the virtues that some call the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and, most importantly, kindness. I will end here with a slightly altered version of a poem by The Abbey of Gethsemani.
Of all the virtues open to all of us the
Most effective, the most far-reaching, the most
Consoling is Kindness.
Kindness is one of the greatest gifts to the world.
It drives gloom and darkness from souls.
It puts hope into fainting hearts.
It sweetens sorrow. It lessens pain.
It discovers unsuspected beauties
Of human character.
It calls for a response from all that is best in souls.
It purifies, glorifies, ennobles, all that it touches
It opens the floodgates of children’s laughter.
It gathers the tears of repentant love.
It lightens the burden of weariness.
It stops the torment of angry passion.
It takes the sting from failure.
It kindles courageous ambition.
It lifts the unfortunate.
It leads back the wayward.
Let us all become advocates of kindness to partake
Of its sweetness, to aspire to its magnificence
The virtue of kindness is exalted;
It is sublime;
It is worthy of each of us
Congratulations, again to all of you. I wish you every blessing as you embark on the next phase in your life’s journey.
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If you’re wondering about the part in bold & italics, with the asterisk beside it – that would be the part I decided I needed to add this morning, because something still didn’t ‘feel right’ in the original version. Of course, I wrote that part out by hand because I didn’t have time to get it printed again. And then I stumbled a bit over my words because, well… nobody will ever give me awards for my penmanship. Of course, I’m the person who noticed that stumble the most, and I beat myself up over it on the drive home.
The universe’s way of helping me find the theme for next year’s speech?
I think so.
Brzovic For School Board 