Having put off writing her valedictory speech for a month and then writing it in “one stress-filled evening” is a perfect metaphor for her past four years in high school, said Samantha Klapatiuk.
“I feel like my procrastination in this one case was out of the apprehension that after this day, a fond and familiar chapter of our lives will be coming to a close,” Klapatiuk said in her valedictory address.
“After this day there will be no more life lessons taught when Mr. Placatka forgets the math part of ‘real world problems.’ No more sandwiches made by weary parents who wonder why their 18-year-old can’t pack his or her own lunch by now,” she said. “Never again will Mr. McLean create a lab for our chemistry class that either fails to work or works so well it explodes.
“And after this day, none of us will ever spend five days a week together for 10 months out of a year.
“I would like to say that you have all impacted my life in at least one positive and memorable way, and I am ever so grateful for that,” she said. “I promise to keep this short and sweet, and I also promise that despite my overly-affectionate and emotional ways, I will try to keep this speech light-hearted because sweat, tears, and makeup are not a winning combination.
“Twelve years of hard work and determination have brought us all to this point, and that is something we can all be proud of. It has been a long, crazy and unforgettable journey as we have grown, not so gracefully, into adulthood together. When you spend as much time together as we do, it can be hard to see how far we have come as a group, but I have examples to prove to you the progress we have made.”
Klapatiuk presented those examples, including one student getting his tongue stuck to a frozen swing, another doing a “slap-bet,” and a third, copying and turning in an assignment as his own.
“While we have made progress, we have also learned many beneficial things,” she said mentioning one student having learned to read, another learned about biting and a third, all about making fudge.
“Now that you can truly see how far we have come, I would like to address where we are headed.
“Here we sit in front of those we love. Some of us are provincial athletes, artists, musicians, builders and breakers; we are dreamers, and intellectuals, or nerds, but above all we are a force to be reckoned with. We are aspiring to be engineers, doctors, welders, veterinarians, architects and so much more. We have goals and dreams and a sense of determination that shows in everything we do. We are individuals who are ready to go out and conquer any obstacle that gets in our way.”
Addressing the Class of 2016, Klapatiuk said that she was the least qualified person to give them advice so she found a quote by “an ancient Chinese philosopher” who said: “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
“Well you guys, this is our first step in a long journey that can, and will, take us everywhere imaginable,” she said. “So, Class of 2016, thank you and good luck.”
