Berrien Springs High School - Canoe Yearbook (Berrien Springs, MI)

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VALEDICTORY ADDRESS Faculty, Classmates, Friends:--Through cur school years ire have attended this annual event with a sense of pleasure, knowing that we had advanced one year nearer our gool. Tonight we, as Seniors, come with S feeling of loss and regret, realizing that we are leaving the Eerrien Springs High School and wondering what the future holds in store for us. Tonight marks not the end but the beginning or our liv and -what ourllives will be depends largely on the foundations we have bden building for them in our school years. As we are about to step forth into the world it is well to consider what part we are to play in the battle of life. There are a number of unwitten laws that are fixed and unchangeable. They regulate the actions of men and vd me. We may not know that these laws exist. A1 the time, however, we are moving in obedience to one of the most powerful of these laws--The Great Law of Compensation--this lawexpressed by Christ when he said: With whatsoever measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. It may not have occured to us that for whatever harvest we reap, we have at some time sown the seed It is a vital truth in the life of every person that as he enjoys the richness of life, he is consciously or unconsciously signing his name to life's prommisory not— For value received, I promis to pay. As we stand here tonight, the doors of our school with its sheltered lift closing behind us, we ask ourselves the question-- Just what are we going to get out of life anyway? It all rests with us. We.will get out of life just exactly what we pay for — just what we put into it. Everything in the world has its price and we cannot gai n one advancement or advantage without at some tine paying every o mce to its valuf So it remains for us to decide what we most desire to get out of life, and then earnestly strive to attain that end. There are always agreat many people who will attempt to work the graft upon the world but sooner or later every account comes up for f- ll settlement. Members of the Faculty, we begin to realize how grateful we must be to you for these years of training. How often we see men and women paying for their early mistakes by years of bitter remorse, or th-hand, enjoying the rewards that they have, earned by adhering to the right, with due regard for the rights and feelings of others. Thus, to you who have given us so fair a start, we do feel a debt of gratitude . Classmates:—All these years of our student life me have been on the receiving hand. We have been getting from life its best gifts. While we may have justly earned a portion of all we have attained, there is a great deal of that day-by-day character building for which we are still indebted to all the influences, both seen and unseen, that have been brought to bear upon us through these years. As we look back, it is easy to see the Value received of our high school career. Now the time has come for the working out of our promise to pay. The world will at once look for us to pay back into its treasury the wealth of good things it has been giving us. It will remind us at every turn in the road, For value received, I promis to pay. The Class of 34 has taken for its motto He conquers who con

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Valedictory Address (cont'd) quers hlms lf. If we have learned the lessons of self-discipline and self-control we will be able to conquer and our account with life wil be so accurately balanced there will nevor be any bad debts standing out against us, and the For value received, I premise to pay, as represented by our diplomas will be onlly a pleasurable reminder of most enjoyabYe- duty and-enviable privilege . SALUTATORIAii ADDRESS Parents and Friends and Members of the Faculty:--The class of 19 34, about to go the way of nil the classes of Berrien Springs High School, salutes you even in the face of approaching death. It is with the most profound regret that I disclose to you the condition of the Class of 34 . we have known for several years that the class was in a somewhat critical state of health, and the crisis is at hand. For the past four uears, her head has been swelling so rapidly due to information absorbed in Berrien Springs High School, that it has become a matter of but a short time until it will be entirely un safe to associate with her any longer. She has suffered from many dizzy spells, due to the great height to which she has risen in her search for wisdom, and her heart in all its 28 parts has become abnormally heavy with the thought of parting soon to come. In addition to this, she still carries many stabs to her vanity, received from unexpected failures and mistakes;and various scars, which even her massive pride has not yet been able to heal. These scars and bruises are the result of trying to outstrip her competitors or climb too far above the average of the High Schoole precedent, in arstfcdnge fever of desire to finish her race before the appointed term had been fulfilled. She is also exceedin jty nervous, and hopes that you will bear patiently this evening with her frequent lapses of memory; for her overworked and overloaded brain has begun to wnnder--ever more than usual. Year by year, she has grown smaller and smaller, shrinking under the wirght of ponderous study laid upon her. Under such conditions who could expect, or even wish her to linger in this dreary vale of tears and partings? No, there is no longer any hope. The class of 1934 has become altogether too wise to linger longer among the struggling youths and aspiring maidens of Berrien Springs High School. Last week a council of wise specialists was called to give judgment upon the rapidly failing patient. They took her temperature and mental standing, and performed a ver essential operation on her over-cDowded brain, in her poor cranium they found such a jumbled up mass of the things she had studied in her four years of high school, that not a single thing was recognizable. After many hours of careful consideration they gravely gave thair verdict. The patient was said to be suffering from a very bad case of excess of information with an average temperature of 86,9 per cent and stated in all their professional wisdom that she couldn't possible last longer than the evening of May 24. I assure you she is suffering extreme pain now, and will no doubt pass away in a short time, her pulse is beating at a most alarming rate and her nerves are a wreck, her temperature is at present 118f in the