St Michaels College School - Tower Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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GRADUATION

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JDICTORY ADORES: Remember how, as ' niners ' passing through the archway of this august institution SAINT MICHAEL B COLLEGE SCHOOL, our energies and aspirations were directed towards this one, vaguely definelB day called ' graduation ' ? Now that we each hold proudly in our hands what some facetiously dub our ' passport to the future ' - our diplomas, we can at least sit back, loosen our ties and relax! I don ' t think that an entire speech is necessary to sum up the sentiments of the graduating class. The task can be accomplished quite simply using one word - RELIEF! It ' s taken us five years to arrive at this moment and undeniably, when we leave, we shall miss Saint Michael ' s. The funny thing is, Saint Michael ' s will also miss us! As a graduating class, we have been characterized by our ability to (with all due respect to Sean Dodds) STAND OUT from the crowd, excelling in all areas of school life from athletics to academics and the Arts. We hold in front of us our diplomas, but our naturally inquisitive minds, sharpened no doubt by five years of mental exercise, pose the inevitable question, What is graduation? Father Pare, in his homily, gave us some interesting insights, but it won ' t be until our diplomas are carefully put away, , and the champagne glasses are put back on the shelf, and the hullabaloo has died down that the real implications of this strange ceremony called ' graduation ' begin to hit us. I was trying to find a theme for this graduation reflection and after looking at about a dozen KAI ' s, it - finally dawned upon me that the most extraordinary of all themes could be found in the most ordinary ; of life ' s events. I remember asking a child once who his favourite story book or movie character was (expecting him to say, of course, Superman or at least E.T.) His answer was unexpected - Janus . Who? . I asked, as puzzled then as you probably are now. The child showed me his picture book and sure enough, there in front of me was Janus, the Roman deity with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future ... I had found my theme. You see, there are few pivotal moments in our lives where the past and future seem interconnected. Graduation is one of those moments. And so today when we are all dressed up and looking distinguished in our suits and cravats, we are invited not only to look to the past but also to look towards the future. We have spent five years together at Saint Michael ' s. What are some of our memories? There are perhaps memories of yellow brick walls and the Tower, memories of football in the tennis courts in September and baseball in May, memories of KAI ' S and Hollowmen and Grub Days, and dreaded memories of exams and late slips and 214. But it is important when we reminisce today, that we don ' t forget to look also at the future. We ' ve got our diplomas and that ' s marvelous, but what ' s next? What comes next, what we accomplish in the future, depends directly on one thing - who we are. That seems like an easy thing to say, but who are we? Do we even have the full answer? I think not. The discovery of who we are is afterall our best definition of ' life ' . But we do know one thing after five years at Saint Michael ' s, and it is one thing that I hope we shall remember long after everything else is forgotten. The partial answer to the question, Who are we lies in the response We are GOOD people. That is important to remember because it is going to take all the courage, all the wisdom and all the goodness within us to reach out to that world of ours, a world characterized by a list of ins injustice, insensitivity, and intolerance. Let us not forget the words of the Carpenter of Nazareth, the Master of the Universe, the God-Man whom the human race crucified two thousand years ago: You are the light of the world. May your light shine before humanity. Somewhere in this world lies a task that can only be accomplished using our unique talents and our individual gifts. The greatest of all gifts is the gift of ourselves in commitment to a world that is more human, more just, more merciful and ultimately, more divine.