Commencement
Last night was commencement...it was awesome...so nice to see everybody again for one last big get together before everybody returns to their normal lives. Everybody was just having a good time.
Last night was also the night that I gave my valedictorian address..man such a day leading up to that...so unprepared haha...I took the Greyhound bus with Amy and Jo (Jo is a burden....had to get off, buy a ticket, then get on another bus...anyway)..and it was a nice ride...Amy got a little car sick though, but it was alright...I managed to catch the first little bit of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...looks alright..anywho...we arrived at the bus terminal, where Amy and I said our long goodbye, she was going to her own commencement (and Im sure she had a wonderful time)...then begun my long ass busride home...and when I got to famous players...my mom didn't even recognize me...just drove right past me...it was terrible...
Anyway, then I went to ACCI for the first time 2.5 months and it was a great feeling...I miss that place...*sigh*...I had to go there to see Mr. Mac and ask him to edit my speech last minute...and I didn't even get it done...and then I had to go to my Aunt's house to meet my parents for Eid dinner (Eid mubarak to all those muslaaams reading this (if any))...so I got home at 5:30, but I had to leave at like 6..so I hurried and finalized my speech and then did my shitty shitty hair and then went to commencement...didnt even get through one read through lol...*sigh*....
Luckily...everything went out without a hitch...everyone loved it...Im glad...I meant every word...I miss Campbell...University life just can't compare...which sucks...so after the speech, everybody said their last goodbyes type of thing, and we all went our own ways again...
I went back to fazias and got smashed...lol....and played Cranium...good game...anyway....here's a copy of my speech for those who are interested:
I’m going to be perfectly honest with you, in the beginning I had no idea what to say. This is tough. I would spend hours just thinking to myself, staring at the blank page, hoping for something to come into my head. I kept trying to sum up the past 4 years of life in Campbell, but I could never find a way. But maybe I wasn’t supposed to find a way. Maybe the point of us being here, isn’t to sum up the past 4 years of our lives into one big random collage of memories. I have finally come to realize that that is not what I am supposed to do here today. I don’t think I should tell you how I feel about Campbell, or how I think you all feel. It’s not my place to take 4 years and compress it into one speech like I tried to do time and time again. I’m not supposed to make you remember random times and places that may or may not have played a significant role in your lives. This isn’t about me. Hell, this isn’t even about YOU. Well it is about YOU, just not the individual you. It’s about us. It’s about the universal us. It’s about who we are, where we’re going, what our dreams are, and how we are going to achieve them. We’re the future. Our past is here, at Campbell. High school years are supposed to be the best years of your life. When I thought about that long enough, I realized the purpose of this day. Perhaps the point of us being here today is to go through our minds, and take only those few memories of Campbell, the ones that mean the most to us all, the ones that we hold dearest to us, and cherish them forever. And as long you remember how you felt, what impact that moment in your life had on you, and then it will be with you forever. In a way, everything is forever. Life is forever. The impact that we have on ourselves, and others, and even the world, will be remembered regardless of how tiny or insignificant it may seem. There is a line from a song called “This Side of Brightness”. It goes: “I hope that we will make it through the heartbreak that comes with just living through one day. All the good times that past and all the friends we lose in a lifetime on our way.” I ask you all to remember those are with us now. Remember those who are not. Remember the impact they had on us because as long as you do, they will live on forever in our hearts and in our memories. They are immortalized in us. Always remember.
There I was, burying my face in my calculus textbook, a night that resembled every other night for the past 2.5 months, when a friend of mine told me about Conroy’s passing. By the end of the night everybody in this room knew. Everybody from Waterloo to Kingston knew. Where were you when you heard? Isn’t that always the question when things like this happen? When the Twin Towers were destroyed, everybody remembers where they were. I was in awe, because while we all had our own little close circle of friends in school, in the world outside of school everybody was connected. Everybody in this room is connected in some way with every other person here. We are all family and nobody looks after one another quite like family does. The world is a big place, but even the universe isn’t big enough to keep us apart from the ones we hold dear to us. In this stage of the game, you begin to put things in to perspective. You begin to understand what’s important to you, what’s worth losing, and what’s worth holding on to. What was important to you when you first entered high-school? What do you feel is important to you now? Think about it. You’ll see method to my madness. When you’re in high-school, you’re so naïve about the world. You think you know everything, or at least enough in life to get by. But then post-secondary life hits you, wherever you may be, and you’re in shock because you realize just how much more there is to life. You realize just how important friends are, and how they become that much more important to you. You realize just how much you need to hold on to those cherished memories, because that’s all you really have. And when you go off and discover life to its full extent you’ll understand exactly why you need to hold on to those cherished memories.
When I first came to Campell, I thought to myself, man this place is huge. When I walked into Campbell for the first time 2.5 months, it was like, a breath of fresh air to me. I went inside, and, I took in my surroundings, and I thought to myself…man this place is small. It was then I realized that it wasn’t the size of the building that made it so huge. We made Campbell huge. By filling it with memories, and laughter, and good times. I want to say something to all of you. When I walked into Campbell for the first time in 2.5 months I was overwhelmed with a sense of longing. I miss this. I miss us. I miss the daily routine. You know. You all had 1. A routine that lasted you 4 years. Old habits die hard, and so does the routine of Campbell. But let’s hope it never dies at all. Let’s hope that we can always feel free to walk into Campbell, and take in our surroundings, immerse ourselves in our memories and just be swept away by them. Campbell is just teaming with memories, with us. And now that you’re all here tonight, let’s fill Campbell with more memories. Let them flow out of the walls and spread to everybody who couldn’t make it here tonight, so that they too may remember just how much this school meant to us.
School was always a shelter for us FROM the real world. It was never a part of it. We’d always wake up in the real world, and then go to school. School was our safe zone. A place where we could be who we wanted to be, surrounded by others who felt the same way, without having to worry about the admonishment and disapproval of the real world. At times we even went to school to escape from the real world. We got to school, checked our problems at the door, and then picked them up as we left. But while school was a world in and of itself, a shelter, the one thing that it always taught us is that there IS a world out there waiting for us. It’s hard to believe that we’re as old as we are now. What we do with our lives? Back in kindergarten, all everyone wanted to be was a fireman, a policeman, or a doctor. No child ever says, “I’m going to become an actuarial scientist when I grow up.” My point is we all had dreams. And we still do. We just have to figure out what our dreams are. Because that’s all you need to live life; a dream. A reason to wake up every morning and say to yourself “This is my purpose”. There’s a nice saying that I heard once; “I being poor have nothing but my dreams.” The world is a big place and it’s hard to believe that we all have a space in it, but we do. Every single one of you will change the world in some way or another. The flap of a butterfly’s wing in South Africa has the power to change the weather in North America. We’re all just butterflies. But the question is now, where do we flap our wings? And the answer is, of course, I have no idea, but I know where I’m going, as should you. Flap your wings in which ever direction your heart desires, as long as you know where you’re going, and where you came from. And I can tell you is, when an opportunity shows itself, take it. Life is yours. Like the memories of those we held so dear, let your memory live on in the world in the hearts and the minds of others. We are forever. Everything is forever. We journeyed down this 4 year road together, but now it’s time for each one of us to discover the world, discover ourselves, and discover life. Ladies and gentlemen, where Campbell ends, life begins. I’d say that’s cause for celebration. So here’s to each and every one of you, my friends and your friends, our friends, all of our friends, wherever they might be. Here’s to all of us moving up in life, not on. Cheers.
- Shawnathan
posted by Shawnathan @ 8:28 AM
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