Stratford Northwestern Secondary School - Norwester Yearbook (Stratford, Ontario Canada)

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Our teachers can ' t be forgotten and I am sure there are some in our minds that will never be forgotten. But let us consider the fact that the incidents we remember, for the most part, were for our benefit. We owe them much gratitude for the many hours they spent preparing lessons, marking illegible exam papers, and mostly, for patiently spending their time to help us overcome some problem. No doubt if we were starting our education again we would still complain about the teachers, but now that we are finished we can give them a thanks. Naturally our parents and teachers have played a great part, but we students still had to do the work. No matter how much others did towards our education, we were still the ones who had to make the notes, study them, and pass the exams. It was our determination and ambition that got us through. So grads , give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done. Perhaps we didn ' t all get honours, but I am sure we can all say, as Paul did to Timothv, I have fought a good fight and I have finished my course. As I was preparing this speech, the thought occurred to me that this point in our lives is an end of a beginning. It is for many of us the end of our formal education, of learning from text books and some teachers scratching on a blackboard, and the begin- ning of our learning through experience, making mistakes and correcting them. Previous to this it was quite normal to make the same mistake many times in struggling with our school work, but in the future I believe we will learn much quicker, because now a mistake could become quite costly and chances are we won ' t make the same mistake twice. Though it is my opinion that- we will be able to find out our true nature and character, which is one of the many questions we are trying to answer. No matter what we do with our lives , I think one thing should be prevalent in our minds and that is the heritage we have to live for. The heritage our forefathers have fought and died for, to give to us . As our parents hand down the governing of this world to us let ' s show them that we can do a capable job of running it, so that some day our children can say that we did make this a better world to live in. Many people today have the impression that we younger generation are just a bunch of hippies, who only know how to sit around, let our hair grow, and get dirty, which in some cases is true, but for the most of us, let ' s stand up and contribute something to this world that will be of lasting benefit to future generations. In closing, I would like to say, that we will never forget the many years of work, disappointment, and pleasure that we have spent in school, but we can ' t live on memories, so let ' s set new goals to strive for on the ladder of success and look forward to the future . fJtJ Jo cX

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VALEDICTORIAN VALEDICTORY ADDRESS By: Nolan Swartzentruber This is the year we have all been waiting for, for quite some time. For some, it has been twelve years, some thirteen and for others it seemed to go on indefinitely, but we finally reached our goal and this is the moment of truth. I believe that everyone that has contributed to our edu- cation should receive a special note of thanks. Our parents, our teachers and also we, the graduates. Firstly to our parents. I doubt whether anyone will disa- gree on the fact, that if it wasn ' t for our parents none of us would be here. It is easy to say thanks now but I doubt whether we were too thankful at the time when being severly reprimanded for our not quite so good marks , or getting in a little late that night we had the car, or, well maybe I had better not go into anymore detail. I am sure that n ow we can all say it did pay off, no matter how severe it seemed at the time. So again we, the graduates , give a hearty thanks to our parents who have played a vital role in making this year a success for us.

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