Welcome parents, family, friends, teachers, and staff to the graduation of the class of 2016.
I am extremely honored to represent the grade 8s here at Paris Central School. There have been many ups and downs throughout my time here. But I can tell you I could not be happier standing before you today. I am very grateful to my classmates for voting for me to be your valedictorian. The definition of Valedictorian is “a student typically having the highest academic achievement of the class”. I can tell you right now I am not the typically, I am the untypically. As a matter of fact I am not entirely sure I can spell Valedictorian. V-A-L-E- dictorian.
But Paris Central is a very untypical school and not in the bad way. As most of you know when I was in grade four my sister had leukemia which is a type of cancer. It was a very hard time for myself, my sister, and the rest of my family, but one of the only good things to come out of that experience is how supportive the students and staff were during that period of time. I remember the whole school wearing the colour orange in support of Kylie. Also Mr. Fleet and Mme. Nassar put together a little bucket of beach toys and such. But the one thing I will always remember is that not a day went by for the 2 and a half years she went through her chemo that someone did not ask me how she or myself were doing. Even to this day teachers, staff, and students still ask. To have a school, such a small school makes that terrible experience even the slightest better is something that no other school could possibly do. So for that Paris central and students and staff I thank you.
As you all know starting in September we will be going Paris district high school. For some it will be a breath of fresh air but for the others they may be feeling a little stressed or a little scared. It is quite frightful to embarrass yourself in front of people who you want to impress or be friends with but I can tell you I have already had an embarrassing moment and I have not even stepped foot in a classroom. About a month ago I went to the high school with fellow classmates to their step day program where you got to learn about how you can get involved around the high school. So everything was going great and then we went outside to get a burger in the courtyard. Well I thought it would be a fantastic idea to go get a freezie in the cafeteria. So I went inside past all of the high school kids who stared me down just for daring to walk past them, so I made my way to the lienup to grab a cherry freezie. After paying for the freezie I walked back into the courtyard past the staring grade twelve’s. Well when I had gotten outside I realized I had forgotten to cut my Freezie, so back inside past the high schoolers I went finally asking the lunch lady for scissors. When I went to cut the freezie open a big chunk fell out the top and landed on the lunch lady’s paperwork, already with eyes already on me I spitted out the word sorry and turned around to grab some napkins. But instead of grabbing napkins I hit all of the straws onto the floor as they rolled across the cafeteria. Quickly I tried to gather them all up throwing them in the garbage still saying sorry to the lunch lady as I throw out her entire container of straws. I then had to walk out of the cafeteria with my freezie at hand past the high school kids for the 4th time in 3 minutes. But the story is not over, since I had wasted time picking up the straws my freezie was completely slush so I was at the point of drinking my freezie. So I started to drink until I began to choke on the juice. So just like any person choking on something would I took the freezie out of my mouth only to have the juice at the top frop out of the freezie and on to my white and blue plaid shirt. Immediately after spilling the freezie on my shirt I grabbed napkins for real this time and wiped off what I could before we had to walk back into the cafeteria to the library. But rather than walking in and being called out or stared and pointed at either as the kid who spilled and threw out all the straws or as the kid who had red all down his white and blue shirt. But to my wildest surprise nobody pointed or stared or called out, instead they all ate their lunch and continued to not give a crap about the embarrassing thing I had done 5 minutes prior. So I guess if there is a moral to my story it is that if you think someone is judging you or talking behind your back chances are you are the only person with that thought.
I would also like to thank the teachers and staff for all they have done over the past 10 years for all of us. The teachers at Paris Central have taught us mostly everything we know to this day, whether that was our ABC’s with Mrs. Demarco, our government structure with Mr. Fleet, or Mrs. Dear teaching us you know what. We have also had amazing teachers that have gone on to leave Paris Central such as Mr. Haggith and Mrs. Burrows. Also they may not be teachers but a huge thank you to Mrs. Lytle for doing a phenomenal job running this school for the past 4 years and Mrs. Nicholas for always taking my late pizza orders. This year we had Mme. Nassar who has taught us French since grade 4, and it is too bad that our high school French teacher probably won’t give us any bonbons like Mme. Nassar. We also had Mr. Walker who taught us math and also shared many interesting stories with us but not until after we finished our math (don’t worry parents). As well as our grade 8 teacher for all of the other subjects Mrs. Dear, it was amazing to have Mrs. Dear teach us again this year after having her in grade 5 and I wish her the best of luck at cobblestone after her maternity leave with her new baby girl. I do believe that Paris Central has supplied some of the best teachers across the board and they only paid me $20 to say that. Like I stated before I would like to wish Mrs. Dear and Mrs. Cowell luck at their new schools along with Mr. Walker with his new job at enrichment, As well Mr. Fleet who is retiring after many years here at Paris central. You are not only a great teacher but a great person and I wish you lots of luck in the next stage of your life. I would now like for everyone to join me in applause for these four teachers who are moving on from Paris Central.
We are a difficult class as most of you know. Through numerous years here at Paris Central each teacher has tried to motivate our class, whether that was through long lectures, candy at 9:30 in the morning, an infraction system for our Toronto trip, inspiring speeches, Multiple inspiring speeches. Which leads me to believe if these highly educated and experienced adults have been unable to get through to us, what chance does my 3 minute speech have of inspiring anyone? I do not know but none the less get ready to be inspired.
As we gear up to go to high school after our summer vacation this may be the last time we are all in the same room together as we are all about to move on to new classes and new friends and we can all have a fresh start. If you are someone who didn’t hand in your work or maybe passed with a 50 or graduated with a 40, this is a fresh start. High school is a time to find yourself and discover who you truly are, what you want to aspire to be, and the choices you want to make. Now whether or not you graduated with a 90 or with a 40 you are in control of your choices in grade 9 and in control of you fresh start.
