The Importance of Relationships
Head Boy Kyle Chang gave this speech at the Upper School Prize Day ceremony on June 13, 2019.
Good afternoon everybody, thank you very much for joining us today on Prize Day.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kyle Chang and I’ve had the real privilege of being the Head Boy this past year. In my previous speeches, I shared stories about my first day at school and my most memorable Christmas present. Today, instead of starting off with something personal, I would like to talk about one of my role models and one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Rafael Nadal. While many of you have been focusing on the Raptors these past few weeks, you may have missed Rafa winning the French Open on Sunday to become the first ever player to win the same Grand Slam 12 times.
Despite his success, Rafa has suffered from debilitating injuries throughout his career. But, every single time, he has returned to the top of his game because of his perseverance. Rafa now has a tennis academy in Spain, and one day, he said something to his students that I’ll never forget. He said: “It’s not that easy to believe in yourself, everybody has doubts. The thing that you cannot lose is the belief that you can improve.”
This quotation about having doubts and the importance of trying to find a way to improve is pertinent to all of our lives. The reason why we savour success is due to the struggles we experienced on our way to achieve it. For example, Rafa treasures every title that he wins because of the physical challenges he has overcome.
Prize Day is all about celebrating the students’ achievements over the past year for their character, leadership, academics and co-curricular involvement. However, I think that if I just listed 50 accomplishments, we wouldn’t be appreciative because we would be unaware of the adversity that the individual or team faced. Therefore, while there were many student accomplishments this year, I would like to focus on the success of two teams, the Varsity Rugby Team and Team 610. Unfortunately, I have never been on either of these teams, so I asked for a little bit of help for this part of my speech.
For Varsity Rugby, starting winger Coulson Wiggan writes: "For every player on the rugby team, the pinnacle of the season is the Friday Night Lights matchup. However, along with the support of the home crowd comes an elevated sense of pressure to perform. This year, we played TCS. They scored first and immediately I feared a repeat of last year’s FNL game where we lost by a huge margin. TCS hit hard, ran fast, and they were awarded a series of penalties that had us on the backheel. After one of their tries, we gathered under the post and took a big deep breath as a team. We calmed our nerves and fed off the energy of the home crowd to score a sequence of tries. Our resilient comeback earned us a rewarding 36-24 victory on that Friday night."
Meanwhile, Dylan Lu, Head of Communications for Team 610 says: "After winning our first event in Oshawa, Team 610 was feeling strong going into our second event in North Bay. However, it did not go as expected. We made many changes to the robot and nothing seemed to click. After losing 3 of our first 4 matches, and getting eliminated in the semi finals, we were doubtful that we could return to our peak. Following the event, we learned from our mistakes, and we identified how we could improve. The team knew it was going to be hard to integrate our robot’s changes in making them work on the field, but we worked together to make it happen. We did not lose the belief that we could improve, and it showed when we caused a few upsets to become division finalists at Worlds."
Just like the Varsity Rugby Team and Team 610, every team and individual at Crescent encountered periods of doubt on their way to success this year. Across all of these scenarios, however, there was one common factor that kept us believing that we could improve. What was it? Quality relationships. Recently, Harvard University concluded a 75 year study where they compared the wellbeing of 500 poor men versus 300 Harvard graduates. Their finding was as follows: if one’s goal is to live a fulfilling life, they should prioritize the development of quality relationships. These relationships are not defined by the number of followers you have on Instagram, nor does it mean to have a significant other. Rather, the study noted that a quality relationship exists when there is vulnerability and depth within it.
You see, relationships come easy when everything goes as planned, but sometimes they break when challenges appear. As described, the Varsity Rugby Team and Team 610 encountered difficulties during their seasons. However, due to the quality relationships that existed on those teams, they embraced their vulnerability by rallying together instead of giving up on each other. In doing so, they exemplified our school’s motto for the year, “Once a Brother, Never Alone.”
After being at Crescent School for nine years, I’ve finally realized that this type of relationship is what makes our school so special. With the right amount of money, any school can build facilities like ours, offer similar lunches, or provide the same extra-curricular activities. What a school cannot buy are the relationships that flourish within all levels of Crescent: student to student, student to staff, and staff to staff. Due to these quality relationships that enable us to share our vulnerabilities, we might not win the French Open any time soon, but we will definitely never lose the belief to improve.
Thank you everybody. Have a great summer.
Back
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kyle Chang and I’ve had the real privilege of being the Head Boy this past year. In my previous speeches, I shared stories about my first day at school and my most memorable Christmas present. Today, instead of starting off with something personal, I would like to talk about one of my role models and one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Rafael Nadal. While many of you have been focusing on the Raptors these past few weeks, you may have missed Rafa winning the French Open on Sunday to become the first ever player to win the same Grand Slam 12 times.
Despite his success, Rafa has suffered from debilitating injuries throughout his career. But, every single time, he has returned to the top of his game because of his perseverance. Rafa now has a tennis academy in Spain, and one day, he said something to his students that I’ll never forget. He said: “It’s not that easy to believe in yourself, everybody has doubts. The thing that you cannot lose is the belief that you can improve.”
This quotation about having doubts and the importance of trying to find a way to improve is pertinent to all of our lives. The reason why we savour success is due to the struggles we experienced on our way to achieve it. For example, Rafa treasures every title that he wins because of the physical challenges he has overcome.
Prize Day is all about celebrating the students’ achievements over the past year for their character, leadership, academics and co-curricular involvement. However, I think that if I just listed 50 accomplishments, we wouldn’t be appreciative because we would be unaware of the adversity that the individual or team faced. Therefore, while there were many student accomplishments this year, I would like to focus on the success of two teams, the Varsity Rugby Team and Team 610. Unfortunately, I have never been on either of these teams, so I asked for a little bit of help for this part of my speech.
For Varsity Rugby, starting winger Coulson Wiggan writes: "For every player on the rugby team, the pinnacle of the season is the Friday Night Lights matchup. However, along with the support of the home crowd comes an elevated sense of pressure to perform. This year, we played TCS. They scored first and immediately I feared a repeat of last year’s FNL game where we lost by a huge margin. TCS hit hard, ran fast, and they were awarded a series of penalties that had us on the backheel. After one of their tries, we gathered under the post and took a big deep breath as a team. We calmed our nerves and fed off the energy of the home crowd to score a sequence of tries. Our resilient comeback earned us a rewarding 36-24 victory on that Friday night."
Meanwhile, Dylan Lu, Head of Communications for Team 610 says: "After winning our first event in Oshawa, Team 610 was feeling strong going into our second event in North Bay. However, it did not go as expected. We made many changes to the robot and nothing seemed to click. After losing 3 of our first 4 matches, and getting eliminated in the semi finals, we were doubtful that we could return to our peak. Following the event, we learned from our mistakes, and we identified how we could improve. The team knew it was going to be hard to integrate our robot’s changes in making them work on the field, but we worked together to make it happen. We did not lose the belief that we could improve, and it showed when we caused a few upsets to become division finalists at Worlds."
Just like the Varsity Rugby Team and Team 610, every team and individual at Crescent encountered periods of doubt on their way to success this year. Across all of these scenarios, however, there was one common factor that kept us believing that we could improve. What was it? Quality relationships. Recently, Harvard University concluded a 75 year study where they compared the wellbeing of 500 poor men versus 300 Harvard graduates. Their finding was as follows: if one’s goal is to live a fulfilling life, they should prioritize the development of quality relationships. These relationships are not defined by the number of followers you have on Instagram, nor does it mean to have a significant other. Rather, the study noted that a quality relationship exists when there is vulnerability and depth within it.
You see, relationships come easy when everything goes as planned, but sometimes they break when challenges appear. As described, the Varsity Rugby Team and Team 610 encountered difficulties during their seasons. However, due to the quality relationships that existed on those teams, they embraced their vulnerability by rallying together instead of giving up on each other. In doing so, they exemplified our school’s motto for the year, “Once a Brother, Never Alone.”
After being at Crescent School for nine years, I’ve finally realized that this type of relationship is what makes our school so special. With the right amount of money, any school can build facilities like ours, offer similar lunches, or provide the same extra-curricular activities. What a school cannot buy are the relationships that flourish within all levels of Crescent: student to student, student to staff, and staff to staff. Due to these quality relationships that enable us to share our vulnerabilities, we might not win the French Open any time soon, but we will definitely never lose the belief to improve.
Thank you everybody. Have a great summer.
