Good evening fellow grads, teachers, families and friends, I would like to thank you all for giving me the honour of speaking at our commencement ceremony.
As I stand before you today and look upon the 400+ students of my own graduating class I must confess something. While I would love to stand here and reminisce over all the pleasant experiences we shared together, from sports games, to spirit assemblies, to academic activities, cracking some jokes along the way, the truth is that any such action would feel disingenuous and superficial. Despite being in the same building for the past 4 years, perhaps even participating in similar events, every graduating student in this room has had a vastly different high school experience, and vastly …show more content…
But alas, this right is not always respected as it should be. The greatest unexploited resource on our planet lies in the minds of students like you or me who happened to, through no fault, no choice of their own to be born in a country too poor, too dangerous, too unstable to receive the education they are fundamentally entitled to and so fully deserve. The next revolutionary technological innovation may lie trapped in the mind of a young man forced to fight adult’s wars, a Kalashnikov rather than a novel in his hand. The next life-saving medical advancement may be hidden in the mind of a young girl, living the life of a woman, married and pregnant before she can even write her name. The next world-changing contribution to the arts may be suppressed in the mind of a high school drop out, unable to continue with their academics because of underfunded schools, unsafe communities, societal marginalization and a lack of opportunities and resources to thrive.
It is often difficult to truly appreciate the value of education. I will concede before anyone else that this gift is far too easy to be taken for granted. My attendance record is proof enough that waking up before the sun and slogging through convoluted homework day after day is often times, not the most enjoyable prospect. But the value of education far outweighs its situational
As I stand before you today and look upon the 400+ students of my own graduating class I must confess something. While I would love to stand here and reminisce over all the pleasant experiences we shared together, from sports games, to spirit assemblies, to academic activities, cracking some jokes along the way, the truth is that any such action would feel disingenuous and superficial. Despite being in the same building for the past 4 years, perhaps even participating in similar events, every graduating student in this room has had a vastly different high school experience, and vastly …show more content…
But alas, this right is not always respected as it should be. The greatest unexploited resource on our planet lies in the minds of students like you or me who happened to, through no fault, no choice of their own to be born in a country too poor, too dangerous, too unstable to receive the education they are fundamentally entitled to and so fully deserve. The next revolutionary technological innovation may lie trapped in the mind of a young man forced to fight adult’s wars, a Kalashnikov rather than a novel in his hand. The next life-saving medical advancement may be hidden in the mind of a young girl, living the life of a woman, married and pregnant before she can even write her name. The next world-changing contribution to the arts may be suppressed in the mind of a high school drop out, unable to continue with their academics because of underfunded schools, unsafe communities, societal marginalization and a lack of opportunities and resources to thrive.
It is often difficult to truly appreciate the value of education. I will concede before anyone else that this gift is far too easy to be taken for granted. My attendance record is proof enough that waking up before the sun and slogging through convoluted homework day after day is often times, not the most enjoyable prospect. But the value of education far outweighs its situational