Going all the way back to year 9, I was the small skinny kid, that looked like he was still in primary. In year 9 I was faced with the monstrosity that is Macleans College. I was very petrified and nervous to face the “beast” as most of my friends abandoned me and went to the dark side, that is Pakuranga College. So I was faced with this enormous challenge and to go along with this I was so shy that I wouldn’t talk to anyone.
On the first day all the year nines were put in the gym and picked off one by one into their houses and form classes. On the day I didn’t think about this but I was bound to be put in Upham, not like it was destiny or something but because my sister was in upham.
As people started to settle I started to make my way to the back of the gym, on my way I found one of my friends that went to Farm cove. So we sat together and waited for our turn. Most people were gone and now it was time for upham, “form class 9 HUU”, My name gets called, then straight after my friends name is also called, what are the odds of my friend and I getting in the same form class, 1 In a million, nah actually its 1 out of about five hundred kids. So after this we are taken to the form class which I will be in for my 5 years at Macleans. We are introduced to the teacher, who was Mr Hey. Now Mr Hey is not your average teacher, he’s like the commander in an army, I don’t know about the other people in my class but I was very scared of him. He would always check our garters, check if our shoes were clean and make us sign our diary by our parents or else it was a house detention. I got way to many house detentions because of this. Now even though he may have been very strict, he was a great influence as he made me realise the possibilities at Macleans. This made me interested in joining many co-curricular activities such as house activities, enviro and cricket. These activities made my life at Macleans much more memorable, and enabled me to make new and interesting friends. Now enough about me, instead lets talk about this “wonderful” college, that is Macleans. We have been at Macleans for a mere 5 years, and even thought that seems like a long time, it has gone by in the blink of an eye. It seems like only yesterday that we were skinny years 9 making our way into Macleans, trying to figure out where the next class was, and looking clueless in front of the senior student. Now we are the ‘not so’ clueless seniors, who are ready to move forward in the world. And as our memories begin to fade, it won't be the periods or years that we will remember, it will be the friendships that we made and the wonderful and amazing time we have had together.
I know all of you have heard this stuff before, the cliche themes of chasing dreams and always wanting more. But the core of this speech is to show that you can get up off the floor. This corny speech is intended to teach that as far as you’ll reach is as far as you’ll soar. Of course there will be troubles and the louder you’ll sing the more painful your song. But the toil of crawling through mud when it seems like you’re stuck, don’t give up. Cause it's worth it. Now none of us are perfect, so you see naturally life is a mess and there’s a lot of stress. But we press through the pain and dance in the rain and we change and we grow and we learn how to let go and it's these times that show we are better than we know. So don’t ever think when you’re on the brink that it's better to sink than to get up and sing. Because in all situations when it's looking grim it's only overboard that you learn to swim. So you can keep preserving, doesn’t matter if it's day or night, don’t give up the fight because it is the harsh winds that pick up the kite. We are in this together, through storms or nice weather, the journey’s the learning the learning’s the growing so don’t end your story without even knowing. Cause though in life you come across closing gates, and having too much on your plate, whatever you stay great things await. Life is a battle, like any warrior you have to have something worth fighting for, I’d argue the true reason for our existence is not money or fame even happiness too if you focus on you, for me the true key is to serve and observe to make others happy, cause by caring and sharing the burdens there bearing we become intertwined then we are shown that we’ve grown more than we’ve known we could alone because the more we live the more we give. So rise above and learn to love because that is where true joy is made of. We decide to be divided but we don’t have to we can pull through and me and you know so much more that we can do united. Cause someday you'll see that it's not about me, it's about us, so we should all discuss how to treat one another with love. So look around you and see all these faces, were all walking though life at our own different paces. So whatever you’re politics religion or race is, you’re gonna go up there and you’re gonna go places, so wherever you are you’ve gotta work with your placement whether its Newyork, Asia or your parents basement, cause where ever, when ever you are just know that you can go far and shoot for every star and love the life you have gotten no matter how bizarre cause whether or not it's what you thought this life you have is all you’ve got. Potential, you’ve got a lot so please I beg you my dear friends do not throw away your shot.
We are all nearing the end of a long and strenuous journey, but are also beginning a new and exciting venture into the “real world”. You are not defined by your past, instead you are born anew in each moment so own it, now. You can't go back and make a brand new beginning, but you can start now and make a brand new ending.
Sometimes life may hit you in the head with a brick, don't lose faith (and brain cells). Sometimes you have to taste the awful medicine to reek the benefits. The key thing is that you have got to find what you love, not only in terms of work but also in a person. Work may take over your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and the best way to do great work is to love what you do. Remember if you still haven't found your passion don't stop looking and don't settle with anything else “as with all matters with the heart you’ll know when you find it”.
What’s makes life interesting is that it is different for everyone. If live was all the same, if all the trees were the same, the flowers were the same, the grass was the same it would be boring and that is why we are all so different. We don't all have the same passion, the same perspectives, the same experiences, dreams and aspirations, we can't all like the same food and have the same favourite colour, you have to look around at this world and appreciate our differences because it makes life more beautiful, interesting and worth exploring. We walk differently, learned in the classroom differently and encountered teaching styles like we never had before. It’s really hard in college not to compare yourself with others, more importantly other people’s grades, especially when you studied for a week for the internal and your classmate that barely does the homework got and excellence when you only got an achieved. But the person who learns the most is not the one that goes from a low excellence to a high excellence but it is the person that goes from an achieved to an excellence. Learning has to do with desire, curiosity and effort. The person who gained the most value comes the furthest. You’re not less worthy than someone else because they seem to have more than us, but we should look at ourselves and see how far we’ve come as to how we should judge our own self worth. There are going to be countless of times where things are going got be difficult and only become more difficult, you’re just going to have to deal with it.