LVR Grad 2015 — Not about the destination, it’s about the company you keep during the journey
By Contributor
For Dunavan Janzen-Morris, the 2014-15 school year at L.V. Rogers high school has been a wild, wild ride.
Janzen-Morris was front and center speaking for students during the labour dispute between the BC Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. Public Employers’ Association. The dispute delayed start of the school term for all LVR grads.
Friday, Janzen-Morris continued to speak for the students as the Valedictorian for the 2015 LVR Grad Class during the Cap and Gown Ceremony at the NDCC Arena.
Janzen-Morris graciously accepted the invitation to have his speech published in The Nelson Daily.
Almost four years ago, Mr. Mush, our vice principal, was standing where I am right now, and I was sitting in the bleachers where you are. My entire Grade 9 class, being you nerds, was sitting all around me. I hate to say it Mush but I don’t remember much from that very first of my many LVR assemblies, except one thing.
Mush, I remember you saying “welcome to L.V.Rogers Grad 2015.” It has a nice ring to it. So maybe that’s why it stuck. I looked around after Mush said that and saw all of you guys and I was like dang ‘’A sick group of kids to go through high school with!’’
So it had begun, and I was part of the graduating class of 2015. Our class was pretty tight in Grade 9. We stuck to ourselves, did our homework, and all got along for the most part. By Grade 10 we were killing it. I mean everyone was showin’ up the Grade 12 parties that year. Grade 10 was probably the best year of high school for us because I think we were all pretty over the ‘’school’’ part and were just lovin’ the ‘’high’’ part. That whole year I remembered thinking ‘’I never want to leave’’.
But near the end of grade 10, friend groups were changing and some cliques were beginning to form. So many grads told me ‘’not to worry’’ though, ‘’everyone comes together in grade 12’’ they said.
Grade 11 on the other hand was a 180° – a completely different story. I was bored of the parties and I think a good amount of us were too. So to the books we went. Grade 11 was probably my parent’s favourite year of high school. I hardly ever got in trouble and usually went to bed before 10 p.m.
“You’re Welcome mom and Dad!”
Again, the groups became more defined. I didn’t get too freaked out, though. I just trusted what those older kids had said, “We will all come together”.
Then came Grade 12. What the heck could have prepared me for this one? Definitely not planning 10, and definitely not those words of wisdom from past grads. Grade 12 has been crazy. Not just academically but socially.
Back in September I thought that this was going to be a long year. But, it has been the shortest one yet. I thought we were all gonna get so close yet as a class, we seem farther apart than ever.
During the year we were all so busy on our own graduation journey that we didn’t even look up to see who was walking on the road beside us. And when I say journey, I mean each of us trying to find answers to those big questions like what am I doing next year?
How do I keep my grades high?
Who am I?
Or what dress should I get for prom?
Or what should I get Mush to say as I walk across the stage in front of everyone I know?
That last one was the hardest. Anyways, what all of these questions have in common is that each one has a personal answer, involving no one but yourself. But the ironic thing is, we can’t answer them alone. And What’s more, the same questions are rattling around inside each one of our heads, 168 kids losing sleep over the same darn dilemma, never pausing for a moment to think maybe I am looking in the wrong place. Maybe I am not the only one confused. Maybe they are feeling whatever I am as well.
I am not saying it is your fault, my fault, or any of our faults. It’s not the teachers or administrations fault either. It is just how we went through high school. Ultimately, the past four years of our lives have been predominately about jumping through the hoops, finishing math 11 planning 10, English 12, (and if you took that one OTT, we are praying for you) GT, and whatever other graduation pre requisites there are.
If you are sitting in front me today I can only assume that you played by the rules, did what you needed to do, and are ready to graduate. Individually, we have all made it and we are all ready to graduate. But I am going to be honest. I don’t think we have made it as a grad class.
I don’t think we have made it as a community and I don’t think we are ready to graduate as one.
And no, Huttemann, Kross, heck not even Mush will yank us back here next year because we didn’t complete the assignment the ‘’Become a grad class’’.
Because we didn’t become a family. Because frankly, sometimes, we didn’t even respect each other. And I am just as guilty as anyone else. No they won’t make us try again in the fall.
And why should they?
It wasn’t part of the deal when we walked in here four years ago. All we had to do was scathe by, bull crap GT, and get that piece of paper saying you’re free. Go into the world.
Do what you are going to do. But I am not talking about that piece of paper and I am not talking about those academic hoops. I am talking about how we are going to remember our grad class and remember ourselves and how each one of us is going to walk through this world. Because this is for that time when you snapped at someone on social media because they had a different opinion than you or they were busy and couldn’t make that night of kidnapping.
This is for when you look back 5, 10, 20, 50 years from now and think, damn, I wish I was a little nicer to that guy or that girl in my grad class. This is for that time when you didn’t scream at the top of your lungs the battle cry of our education, GRAD 2015!
And this is for the time when you weren’t feeling the whole grad thing anyways. To heck with those moments, lacking graduation spirit. They are in the past, and we, as a grad class, have an opportunity to learn from them. Because if I may be so cheese, it is not about the destination, it’s about the company with whom you make the journey.
There is one assignment that graduation transitions left out, one lesson that we as individuals may not have learnt in our high school education and I think it is because no one can teach it to you but yourself. It’s called compassion.
Just imagine if we did graduate alone. Just me walking up here, looking like a freaking nerd, no one around, no friends to share it with, to laugh about all the stupid stuff we did, and yeah we still do sometimes. I’m just a kid!
Anyways, that wouldn’t be fun at all, that wouldn’t be memorable. Heck that would be awkward. Going up to Huttemann and Mush, being like ‘’Well I guess I am done hey?
That was fun seeing you guys in the halls and shit for the last couple years’’ Totally going to miss when you come on the announcements at the end of the day and crack the same joke about flex time’’ ‘’Use it wisely!’’ Anyways, catch you on the flip’’.
Totally weird right?
Well instead we can do it together. Look at the person to your left and to your right, in front of you, and behind. For some, that is a classmate. For others, that is someone you have known since elementary school. That might even be the person you sat beside on your first day of Grade 9. Or maybe that is someone you haven’t quite got the chance to meet yet.
Well say hi, give them a hug and hold them till it hurts because for everyone single one of us the person to our right and left is a fellow graduate from the class of 2015.
Sure, maybe they see the world a little differently, maybe they hang with different people, and maybe they won’t even vote for the same party that you want to win in the next federal election. Forget about that. Let that all go and embrace this moment. Feel the energy of 168 kids taking their first step into the world. And as you take your own step, know that you are not alone. Know that every kid wearing a blue gown is right there beside you and that they will catch you if you fall.
As I said before, we are all walking the same road. And we all just came upon a river, running wild and strong. Each one of must cross it and we can’t do so alone. But what if we don’t have to. What if compassion could be our raft and respect our paddle, and if we fall into the water, friendship our life jacket. I can’t cross this river of alone and I need my friends behind me. I need my class behind me.
That is how I want to graduate; knowing that my grad class has my back. And to know that I am leaving this school, not as an individual, not as a mark on a piece of paper or a name on a cut of cardboard, but as a part of something bigger. As a part of a grad class, as a part of a school, as a part of a community. That is how I want to graduate. That is how I will graduate.
So what do you say, Grads?
Can we do this! What do you say brothers and sisters, can we show compassion?
Can we be part of something bigger?
Can we love both our friends and enemies?! Can we forget about our differences, regardless of however many there may be, and come together, united by our single similarity?
Can we graduate and experience this rite of passage, not as a 168 me’s but as one we? I believe we can too. So if you will repeat after me: Grad 2015. I said GRAD 2015! One more time for Mush! GRAD 2015!!!
It has been my greatest pleasure to stand in front of all you today and speak. But more than importantly it will be my deepest honour to stand beside all of you today and graduate with you.
Thank you.
