Exactly 5 years, 9 months, and 5 days ago, I missed the bus, got stuck in traffic for an hour, lost my way on campus, and arrived, as a new student, in my 7th grade homeroom very very late. As a “welcoming gift”, Mr. Morrison made me the vice cleanup monitor. I mean I didn’t even know what a cleanup monitor was. The name itself sounded terrifying. Little did I know this terrifying beginning transformed into six gratifying years and an unforgettable journey.
Good Evening teachers, students, family, and my beloved class of 2018. I, Crystal Chen, am humbled to be able to stand up here today to speak on behalf of the graduating class of 2018. I appreciate your guidance along the way. I greatly admire each and every one of you for their modesty, kindness, patience, intelligence, and encouragements. As a senior now, I hope to leave IBSH slightly less confused and slightly more intelligent than I was five years ago.
Today, I am neither here to give you some life-changing advice nor am I trying to act like some sort of role model, because I’m not. I’m simply a girl who was offered an opportunity to speak because of a number. And you know what, we are not defined by numbers. Not you, not me, and definitely not the class of 2018. We are more than that. We are the memories we create. We are the laughter that reverberates through the hallways during noon quiet time. We are our tearstained cheeks during the graduation trip when we made one minute appreciation speeches. We are the pranks on April Fool’s day and the poultry themed outfits during Spirit week. We are our memories.
-Hey remember when We showed up late to the power dance competition because we hadn’t finished teaching the choreography, and shocked the audience with our cool-black outfits and absurd dance moves which proudly earned us a second place… I mean second to last place.
-In fact, as an ex vice cleanup monitor from back in 7th grade, I have to mention that we proudly won I think three? cleanup awards in the past three years.
-And remember the 12A versus 12B basketball and soccer tournaments? 12B totally won both of these competitions by the way. just kidding.
-We can’t leave out all the games we played such as marco polo, water balloon fights, coca cola, and Hunger Games
-or musical drama where we somehow ended up with a whole class of 9A girls, so Julia had to be the handsome Captain von trapp from the Sound of Music
-Then there’s karaoke-ing during the field trips and pretending to know what we're talking about during science fairs
-Oh and don’t forget Grad trip in E-Da where many of the guys turned white after going on the U-shaped roller coaster. And quoting Alan, “你們會後悔的.” so the girls went on it twice.
We’ve walked together past our lowest math test grades and our most awkward English speeches. From collectively struggling with chain rules in calculus to our 8th grade Chinese class 木蘭詩video competition, we’ve made seemingly bland textbook statements come alive. From tree climbing and korfball to game theory and science fair projects, we’ve all learned invaluable lessons that will forever be etched in our minds.
Through laughter, tears, jokes, and halfhearted teasing, these minute yet precious moments are captured in the collective memory of the Class of 2018. As Winnie the Pooh, once said, “We didn’t realize we were making memories. We just knew we were having fun.”
Today is our last day together as a grade. Never again will we be able to find each other between ten minute breaks. Never again will we spend homeroom hour making bulletin board posters. Never again will we have a class president, homeroom teacher, and an assigned seatmate. Next Monday walking to class together will be history, and teasing Deyang during math or listening to Jacky’s really loud and passionate conversations from across the room will be a distant memory. High school… will be a memory. Thus, we should cherish these moments and keep them close to our hearts.
We’ve also received life lessons from each other. We’ve learned to appreciate those around us, to explore our imaginations, to question, to doubt, to reflect.We’ve learned to never give up, to stand up from failure, to try our best, to love, to trust, to cherish. Thank you teachers for your patience and guidance. Thank you parents for your love and care. Thank you friends and classmates for your unwavering support. We will never forget IBSH and our classmates, and IBSH please don’t forget us either. Don’t forget our laughter, our smiles, our jokes, our tears, our failures, our reddened test papers, our improvements, our creativity, our successes, our memories. We will forever remember your dedication and care and patience. We will remember. We will remember.
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