Words of Wisdom for the Graduating Class of 2017
[This speech was given at Crescent School's Graduation ceremony on June 16, 2017.]
It is a great honour to have the chance to address this outstanding graduating class. To be honest, when I was asked to speak, I said no. Aside from the sores that develop after three hours, it is much easier to sit down, out of the way. However, I was told that if I wanted a retirement gift, I had better get up here. So with that carrot dangling in front of me I am ready to go.
It is a great honour to have the chance to address this outstanding graduating class. To be honest, when I was asked to speak, I said no. Aside from the sores that develop after three hours, it is much easier to sit down, out of the way. However, I was told that if I wanted a retirement gift, I had better get up here. So with that carrot dangling in front of me I am ready to go.
Anyway, it is with great pleasure that I direct the next 60 or 70 minutes of comments at the graduating class. A lifetime of thoughts bundled up into a lengthy speech.
What pearls of wisdom have I distilled from almost 60 years of life you might wonder? I wondered about it a lot. These are the things I think I know:
I think I know a bit about how you are feeling today. I’m graduating too. And many of us have spent more than half our lives here. We are ready to move on but we are sad to say goodbye to our friends, some that we have known for a very long time. We shared good times and helped each other in the rough times. We learned and we gave back. We have all been part of the Crescent family that wraps its arms around you on day one and reluctantly lets you go today.
Remember, as family we are always welcome back. You are cared for and loved by those around you and that doesn’t stop, even if we don’t meet so often. A big highlight for staff is hearing about the progress of our grads. Please make sure to come back and visit. And keep coming back. I’m going to my school reunion this summer. It’s 42 years since I left. We won’t remember each other, we’ll probably wonder what we are doing there. But there will be tea and biscuits, which will be nice.
What a great class this is. I am, we are, very proud of you guys. You are good people. You care about each other. You care about your school, and those that are part of the school family. You have achieved great things in a whole range of pursuits over your years here. It was tough deciding on prizes for Prize Day this year because there are so many strong students in this graduating class.
Of course we knew, in the Upper School, about this class way before you arrived in Grade 9. Christian Metivier, like an ambassador, paved the way with his friendly greetings. Good afternoon Mr. Cumner as he made his way to the Dining Hall. I’m sure he knew every teacher by the end of his first term at the school. They were bound to be a special class if this was their front man. I couldn’t do any better than to choose you guys to graduate with.
We enjoyed watching you perform in plays and concerts, excel in robotics, participate in volunteer programs, play your hearts out in the sports arena and generally lead the school in a wide range of pursuits. There’s a kindness and gentleness that this class possesses that was often on display, and I experienced, in the classroom, volunteering at Highview, on school trips, and running the Junior Science Olympics.
So, in thinking what I would talk about today I mulled over a few possibilities…
Love thy neighbour. Could be a theme. Yes this is OK, as long as your neighbor hasn’t parked a huge mobile home in the driveway. So I let that go.
A rolling stone gathers no moss. Unless it was Keith Richards doing the plant scavenger hunt activity in Grade 11 Biology. That didn’t seem to work either.
I thought about telling some jokes. Let’s see how my favourite joke goes.
What’s E.T. short for? He’s got little legs. Or, where did Caesar keep his armies? Up his sleevies.
Perhaps not.
Any way in the end I settled on the following messages.
My first message to you is, please do a better job than my generation has at protecting our planet. It is our home, after all. Since I talked to you in assembly a few weeks ago I have been very proud of the number of students who have actively begun to make changes that will lead to a healthier planet. Don’t lose momentum or be complacent in hopes that others will lead the way. Just recently Professor Stephen Hawking announced that we would need to be moving to another planet in a hundred years – a key reason being climate change. The earth may be unlivable in your lifetime, and certainly in your children’s lifetime. You are used to checking the reliability of sources of information. Professor Hawking is about as reliable as you can get. I urge you to lead the way. It is not too late. Young people have a voting voice and can make a difference. Just look at the huge 18-to-24-years-old turnout at the recent U.K elections. They were unhappy with Brexit. Their voice may change the direction that the U.K. set itself upon a year ago. You have the power in numbers to help make a change and the knowledge to understand why improving the health of the planet is crucial to our survival.
Even more than your voting power, you will occupy key roles in society as leaders of multinational corporations, governments, financial institutions and professions such as medicine and engineering, where you will have influence over decisions that affect the health of the world. My trust is in you to make the right choices that will prolong the life of the human species on this planet. That’s a big responsibility that I know you will not take lightly.
My second message is the value of time – the most precious commodity. In my lifetime I’ve seen the pace of life accelerate to the point where we sometimes find it difficult to keep the car on the track. You know how busy you have found this past year to be. My hope is that society will wake up one day and say this is no way to carry on and dial things back. But I’m not holding my breath. North Americans survive in a live-to-work culture. Working long hours and cramming more into the day, is highly respected by your employer and colleagues. Europeans work to live. They have more holiday time and would be frowned upon by their colleagues for spending too much time at work. They would never put up with less personal time; time that they spend with family and friends. If this sounds like I am critical of Canada and Toronto, I am really not. I love this place – the best city in the world, a microcosm of how the world should operate…except for the intensity of life.
Europe is ahead of North America with respect to managing time but, compared to some other parts of the world, Europeans really don’t have their priorities figured out either. In Africa, people generally have much less materially than the Western world but they seem happier because they spend more quality time with friends and family. We do have a lot of stuff, don’t we? We’re always buying stuff but we never have enough time for the important things in life.
If we can’t turn the culture on this time issue around quickly how can you do that as an individual? Firstly, be good to yourself. Take time and do things that you enjoy doing. Build it into your schedule. Short term and long term. Work hard, play hard, rest. You need that personal time to ensure good health, both physical and mental. Life is fleeting. You might as well enjoy it. None of us get out of here alive as someone once said. By here, I don’t think they were talking about the Field House – although there have been some issues with the roof. Hopefully the duct tape is holding.
It has bothered me how over the years very few Canadians take gap years. They do in Europe and in Australia. Why not in Canada? Too many people, particularly parents, are concerned that their children will get off the school to university to work conveyor belt, and get lost. They won’t…and along the way they’ll gain an education that no university can provide: an insight into how other parts of the world operate. Greater empathy and compassion will be gained. It’s an opportunity to try new things, to spread your wings, take a chance, smell the roses, wonder at the cacti and enjoy life. You will be more independent and more resilient.
When I look back on my life my two lengthy spells of backpacking – through Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Australia and North America on one trip and to Africa on another. They were two very important times for me. I learned a lot. One was right after university (they weren’t called gap years in those days). Indeed it helped get me my Crescent job. The headmaster at the time, John Tansey, needed a new biology teacher in a bit of a hurry (the other one became headmaster at Rosseau Lake College). The travel on my resume caught his eye and the rest was history.
Please grads, make time for yourselves, and parents encourage them to make time. Take the time to really live your life.
And by the way, when it comes to retirement age, don’t overdo it. Retire when you can, enjoy life and put time into following your passions. This leads me into my final message.
Follow your passion. That doesn’t mean someone else’s girlfriend. Rather do something that you enjoy doing that has meaning for you. That gives you that feeling of satisfaction. I am very fortunate to be in that position. My time at Crescent has allowed me to explore many of the things that are important to me in the biology world. I want each of you to have the opportunity to follow your dreams.
I hope you are all pursuing your passions at university. It’s not too late to change even when you have started university or when you have been working in another job. We have a number of teachers in the faculty who discovered the joy of teaching later in life. It’s exhausting at times, but boy it is rewarding! Don’t cross it off your list. I was thrilled when someone in the graduating class told me that he was following music at university because it was his passion and not the pathway that he had felt compelled to take. That makes a lot of sense to me. It’s not about how much money you can make. It’s about satisfaction. If you haven’t found your passion, your direction, yet, don’t worry, you will do in time. In the meantime don’t get stressed, relax, enjoy life and as Eric Idle sang in the Monty Python film, Life of Brian, don’t worry give a whistle and everything will turn out for the best. Always look on the bright side of life.
Keeping the movie theme, Forest Gump said life is a like a box of chocolates. I took that to mean that the box was like a cell and each of the chocolates represented a cell organelle. The biggest chocolate would be the nucleus, although I could not understand where the endoplasmic reticulum was. I think that is what he meant although he could also have been saying life is hard, like some chocolates or people are soft like some chocolates. It’s quite complicated really and probably worthy of a course at university.
So, in summary, on climate change: make our planet great again, as French president Macron said in response to Donald Trump’s “make America great” campaign and his abdication of responsibility for helping control climate change.
Make enough time for the important things in life. Absorb as much life as you can and use it to grow as a person.
Follow your passion. Pursue what you believe to be important and your life will have greater meaning.
And while you are doing all this, continue to be the kind, caring, compassionate people that you are today. You have the power to make a difference; please use that power wisely.
We think a great deal of you, you have made us proud and we can’t wait to hear about the differences you will make and their impact on the world. We will miss you and wish you good luck and much happiness on the exciting journey ahead.
Ladies and gentlemen please join me in celebrating the graduating Class of 2017!
And finally, thank you Crescent family for all the love that you have shown me in my time at the school, and particularly in the past few days. I can think of only one way to sign off.... [plays a tune on a snorkel]
Back
What pearls of wisdom have I distilled from almost 60 years of life you might wonder? I wondered about it a lot. These are the things I think I know:
I think I know a bit about how you are feeling today. I’m graduating too. And many of us have spent more than half our lives here. We are ready to move on but we are sad to say goodbye to our friends, some that we have known for a very long time. We shared good times and helped each other in the rough times. We learned and we gave back. We have all been part of the Crescent family that wraps its arms around you on day one and reluctantly lets you go today.
Remember, as family we are always welcome back. You are cared for and loved by those around you and that doesn’t stop, even if we don’t meet so often. A big highlight for staff is hearing about the progress of our grads. Please make sure to come back and visit. And keep coming back. I’m going to my school reunion this summer. It’s 42 years since I left. We won’t remember each other, we’ll probably wonder what we are doing there. But there will be tea and biscuits, which will be nice.
What a great class this is. I am, we are, very proud of you guys. You are good people. You care about each other. You care about your school, and those that are part of the school family. You have achieved great things in a whole range of pursuits over your years here. It was tough deciding on prizes for Prize Day this year because there are so many strong students in this graduating class.
Of course we knew, in the Upper School, about this class way before you arrived in Grade 9. Christian Metivier, like an ambassador, paved the way with his friendly greetings. Good afternoon Mr. Cumner as he made his way to the Dining Hall. I’m sure he knew every teacher by the end of his first term at the school. They were bound to be a special class if this was their front man. I couldn’t do any better than to choose you guys to graduate with.
We enjoyed watching you perform in plays and concerts, excel in robotics, participate in volunteer programs, play your hearts out in the sports arena and generally lead the school in a wide range of pursuits. There’s a kindness and gentleness that this class possesses that was often on display, and I experienced, in the classroom, volunteering at Highview, on school trips, and running the Junior Science Olympics.
So, in thinking what I would talk about today I mulled over a few possibilities…
Love thy neighbour. Could be a theme. Yes this is OK, as long as your neighbor hasn’t parked a huge mobile home in the driveway. So I let that go.
A rolling stone gathers no moss. Unless it was Keith Richards doing the plant scavenger hunt activity in Grade 11 Biology. That didn’t seem to work either.
I thought about telling some jokes. Let’s see how my favourite joke goes.
What’s E.T. short for? He’s got little legs. Or, where did Caesar keep his armies? Up his sleevies.
Perhaps not.
Any way in the end I settled on the following messages.
My first message to you is, please do a better job than my generation has at protecting our planet. It is our home, after all. Since I talked to you in assembly a few weeks ago I have been very proud of the number of students who have actively begun to make changes that will lead to a healthier planet. Don’t lose momentum or be complacent in hopes that others will lead the way. Just recently Professor Stephen Hawking announced that we would need to be moving to another planet in a hundred years – a key reason being climate change. The earth may be unlivable in your lifetime, and certainly in your children’s lifetime. You are used to checking the reliability of sources of information. Professor Hawking is about as reliable as you can get. I urge you to lead the way. It is not too late. Young people have a voting voice and can make a difference. Just look at the huge 18-to-24-years-old turnout at the recent U.K elections. They were unhappy with Brexit. Their voice may change the direction that the U.K. set itself upon a year ago. You have the power in numbers to help make a change and the knowledge to understand why improving the health of the planet is crucial to our survival.
Even more than your voting power, you will occupy key roles in society as leaders of multinational corporations, governments, financial institutions and professions such as medicine and engineering, where you will have influence over decisions that affect the health of the world. My trust is in you to make the right choices that will prolong the life of the human species on this planet. That’s a big responsibility that I know you will not take lightly.
My second message is the value of time – the most precious commodity. In my lifetime I’ve seen the pace of life accelerate to the point where we sometimes find it difficult to keep the car on the track. You know how busy you have found this past year to be. My hope is that society will wake up one day and say this is no way to carry on and dial things back. But I’m not holding my breath. North Americans survive in a live-to-work culture. Working long hours and cramming more into the day, is highly respected by your employer and colleagues. Europeans work to live. They have more holiday time and would be frowned upon by their colleagues for spending too much time at work. They would never put up with less personal time; time that they spend with family and friends. If this sounds like I am critical of Canada and Toronto, I am really not. I love this place – the best city in the world, a microcosm of how the world should operate…except for the intensity of life.
Europe is ahead of North America with respect to managing time but, compared to some other parts of the world, Europeans really don’t have their priorities figured out either. In Africa, people generally have much less materially than the Western world but they seem happier because they spend more quality time with friends and family. We do have a lot of stuff, don’t we? We’re always buying stuff but we never have enough time for the important things in life.
If we can’t turn the culture on this time issue around quickly how can you do that as an individual? Firstly, be good to yourself. Take time and do things that you enjoy doing. Build it into your schedule. Short term and long term. Work hard, play hard, rest. You need that personal time to ensure good health, both physical and mental. Life is fleeting. You might as well enjoy it. None of us get out of here alive as someone once said. By here, I don’t think they were talking about the Field House – although there have been some issues with the roof. Hopefully the duct tape is holding.
It has bothered me how over the years very few Canadians take gap years. They do in Europe and in Australia. Why not in Canada? Too many people, particularly parents, are concerned that their children will get off the school to university to work conveyor belt, and get lost. They won’t…and along the way they’ll gain an education that no university can provide: an insight into how other parts of the world operate. Greater empathy and compassion will be gained. It’s an opportunity to try new things, to spread your wings, take a chance, smell the roses, wonder at the cacti and enjoy life. You will be more independent and more resilient.
When I look back on my life my two lengthy spells of backpacking – through Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Australia and North America on one trip and to Africa on another. They were two very important times for me. I learned a lot. One was right after university (they weren’t called gap years in those days). Indeed it helped get me my Crescent job. The headmaster at the time, John Tansey, needed a new biology teacher in a bit of a hurry (the other one became headmaster at Rosseau Lake College). The travel on my resume caught his eye and the rest was history.
Please grads, make time for yourselves, and parents encourage them to make time. Take the time to really live your life.
And by the way, when it comes to retirement age, don’t overdo it. Retire when you can, enjoy life and put time into following your passions. This leads me into my final message.
Follow your passion. That doesn’t mean someone else’s girlfriend. Rather do something that you enjoy doing that has meaning for you. That gives you that feeling of satisfaction. I am very fortunate to be in that position. My time at Crescent has allowed me to explore many of the things that are important to me in the biology world. I want each of you to have the opportunity to follow your dreams.
I hope you are all pursuing your passions at university. It’s not too late to change even when you have started university or when you have been working in another job. We have a number of teachers in the faculty who discovered the joy of teaching later in life. It’s exhausting at times, but boy it is rewarding! Don’t cross it off your list. I was thrilled when someone in the graduating class told me that he was following music at university because it was his passion and not the pathway that he had felt compelled to take. That makes a lot of sense to me. It’s not about how much money you can make. It’s about satisfaction. If you haven’t found your passion, your direction, yet, don’t worry, you will do in time. In the meantime don’t get stressed, relax, enjoy life and as Eric Idle sang in the Monty Python film, Life of Brian, don’t worry give a whistle and everything will turn out for the best. Always look on the bright side of life.
Keeping the movie theme, Forest Gump said life is a like a box of chocolates. I took that to mean that the box was like a cell and each of the chocolates represented a cell organelle. The biggest chocolate would be the nucleus, although I could not understand where the endoplasmic reticulum was. I think that is what he meant although he could also have been saying life is hard, like some chocolates or people are soft like some chocolates. It’s quite complicated really and probably worthy of a course at university.
So, in summary, on climate change: make our planet great again, as French president Macron said in response to Donald Trump’s “make America great” campaign and his abdication of responsibility for helping control climate change.
Make enough time for the important things in life. Absorb as much life as you can and use it to grow as a person.
Follow your passion. Pursue what you believe to be important and your life will have greater meaning.
And while you are doing all this, continue to be the kind, caring, compassionate people that you are today. You have the power to make a difference; please use that power wisely.
We think a great deal of you, you have made us proud and we can’t wait to hear about the differences you will make and their impact on the world. We will miss you and wish you good luck and much happiness on the exciting journey ahead.
Ladies and gentlemen please join me in celebrating the graduating Class of 2017!
And finally, thank you Crescent family for all the love that you have shown me in my time at the school, and particularly in the past few days. I can think of only one way to sign off.... [plays a tune on a snorkel]
