Good Afternoon friends, faculty and Hodgson's graduating class

of 2016, home of the mighty hawks. If you didn't already

known; my name is Jacqueline Shkabari, othewise Mr.
Tarleton's arched enemy. Now the first thing I want to ask all of
these students, including myself is, how did we manage to
survive these 9 months? I mean we have worked effortlessly day
in and day out. Putting literal blood, sweat, tears the occasional
caffeine filled red-bull drink into our work. You know what I'm
talking about. The trophy winning mom-I-promise-I'm-going-tostart-my-homework-soon routine. As I say this, it most likely
brings up the memories of you procrastinating with videos and
after what you thought was 2 minutes, it was four AM and just
then you realize that you have a Valedictorian speech-hehe I
mean history report due the next morning. *scratches head*
With all this work, our class now gets to celebrate on these
Polyester auditorium seats and dawn on these hand me down
gowns. However, in all seriousness, they are here today because
they have achieved something remarkable, committing to their
own success. Success that many, many people have contributed
to. I'd like to take this moment to thank all the families in this
room today. Families that have stayed up late with their child to
help them finish an assignment and the next morning wake up
early to drive them to school. Families that are probably crying
and reminding themselves how they grow up so fast, as their
not-so-little-babies-anymore receive their diplomas. We truly
appreciate it. You've stood by us through the good and the bad
times. Good being getting a 90 in English, bad being the day
where you got two minutes of detention in Madame Hayes'
classroom and completely disregarded it for 2 weeks and now
you have minutes that have slimmer chances of getting of alive
than avoiding an argument when saying, "Ross and Rachel

weren't on a break". I will continue with my appreciation to the

ones that have also had angular journeys with us. To
the custodians, thank you for continuing to hold together the
structural integrity of the school. Both literally and
metaphorically. Thank you to the secretaries for seeming a bit
intimidating at first but once you get to know them are one of
kindest people in the school. To the teachers here at Hodsgon.
Madame Hayes, Mr. Tarleton and Ms.Tiedeman come to mind
first when wanting to thank them for the emails and notification
my parents receive for the dates of upcoming assignments. It's
been a hoot. And last but totally not least, I'd ike to thank Our
principle and vice-principle, Mr. WIlson and Ms. Campbell for
teaching us that their doors will always be open, that they'll be
there for us no matter what and that Ms. Campbell will always
have a wardrobe that you can't ever beat. Without any of the
faculty at Hodsgon, we wouldn't be standing here today
receiving our diplomas today. So on thethe behalf of myself and
the entire graduating class, I'd like to sincerely say thank you.
Now to the graduating class. We have had great bonding
experiences you and I. We've had laughs and long lasting
memories with all the trips and activities we've gone through;
Camp Couchiching, the 100th anniversary, colour games, all of
our dances that Mr. Jones awesomely DJ'd at and our most
memorial and recent, Ottawa trip. We've had these great times
but it has been a tough one too, with all the projects, tests and
essays. I'm sure that we can all remember the tears. You've gone
through ups and downs I can tell you that, but you all showed a
sense of resiliance and that's why I applaud you. Because I know
that there have been times where you've just wanted to take
every textbook, binder and agenda you own, burn them, cry,
give up and then join the circus. However, life has taught us that

through perseverance we can conquer our greatest endeavours.

This is middle school and we still have much more hard work,
pitfalls, mistakes and lessons to learn ahead of us. Comparing
these two years to high school, university and soon the be jobs
this is nothing but it is preparing us for the years to come. As
Winston Churchill once said, "Success is the ability to go from
one failure to the other without loss of enthusiasm." I believe,
sorry I know that this quote represents our class. With the
students that are here before me, I see an overwhelming amount
of faces that I know will work hard till the very end. I see a class
that will be able to say, "I never gave up, even in my darkest
moments." and with that... they show their dedication. With my
speech I don't want to just remind our class of how great we are
but also of how great we will become. As you leave this
auditorium that highlights my face quite nicely today, I want to
give a sense of inspiration to every single student, every face,
every person that has gone up and down Hodgson's staircases at
least a million times. I want every student born in 02 to always
believe that they can conquer, because once you do believe
anything is possible. I want everyone here to never be put down
by others, because of their fear that you will succeed. As we all
go our separate ways, as we scatter into the wind that is high
school. I want us carry our goals for the future with us. Not only
do I want you to carry it, but to rise it in the air. and scream it on
the tops of every rooftop. I want our voice to echo to the hearts
of everyone. Because I believe in the power of
success, perseverance, dedication and dreams. And that's what
we're here for, not just to graduate and say goodbye to many
friends but to grab hold of every opportunity that life presents
before us. Because we've all earned it. And no matter how many
times we fall or buckle or break. Notice that your hand is still

holding on, you haven't let go. remember that you're never going
to let go, remember that you'll hang on till the very end. Thank
you.