Good evening everyone and welcome to the Montserrat Secondary School’s 2019 graduation ceremony or the Montserrat Secondary School’s annual release of prisoners… whichever you prefer. Now form mates, I know you probably can’t wait to go home and finally be done with school but hear me out.
Firstly, I would like to thank the Almighty Father, for all the blessings that he has given me. I also want to thank my family and friends who have helped me along the way and all the teachers who have been a part of my five-year journey. Special thanks to Mr. Randy Greenaway for all of his assistance with Maths and Physics. Thanks to Mr. Scantlebury for being such an incredible teacher and for accomplishing the impossible- making us actually want to come to school on a Saturday. And thanks to Mr. Duke for all the fun times we’ve had as an Ink Invasion family.
Persons keep telling me that they can’t believe 5 years have passed already, and quite frankly neither can I. When we started MSS none of us could imagine having to go through so much stress. We’ve faced many challenges from not having teachers to having teachers that weren’t cut out for the job. We’ve dealt with the lack of basic necessities like classrooms and even toilet paper in the bathrooms. And the fact that the administration seems to have a vendetta against our form. I mean, why is it that as soon as it’s our turn to graduate, final assembly is cancelled and we’re deprived of our chance to get our shirts signed by all our friends and teachers. Anyway, we’ve overcome all these hurdles, and I’m surprised we don’t have more grey hairs to show for it. Mind you, we weren’t saints eh and our teachers probably have as many grey hairs as us.
Thankfully though there were also a lot of fun times to balance out the negative. Like when the boys took over PE block with their ‘carwash’ (big up to the genna dem) or all the pranks we’ve pulled on teachers and friends. We also can’t forget all the field trips we’ve been on, like the time Miss Kato Greenaway took the Set 1 Maths class to the banks and then bought us ice cream, the French class’s trip to Guadeloupe, the Agri class’s trip to a farm and when Mr. Wilson took our Physics class to Salem Park to carry out an experiment. I certainly can’t forget the day that the current went in ICT class so Mr. Lee took us for a walk- I swear I used to pray for current to go every time after that. We also can’t forget the different form classes we’ve been in and neither Health class when Miss James used to have us keeling over with laughter. And I am sure we’ll all cherish the personal memories that we’ve had with our friends.
Today is now our last day as MSS students. For some it’s merely a switch from white and maroon or khaki to white and blue, while for others it’s the last time you’ll be wearing a school uniform. Continue to work hard and excel in whatever you do. I wish all of you good luck in the future and I hope we don’t lose track of each other.
Personally, I am no way near ready for adulthood yet and this whole ‘new chapter of our lives’ thing scares me. Mainly because I have no idea what it entails and I don’t exactly know what I want it to. For those who are unsure like me, I like to believe that God laughs when we make set plans, for he’s the only one that knows how our future is going to go. So, for now, we can listen to TD Jakes, and he said ‘If you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion for your passion will lead right to your purpose’. And for those that already have it all planned out, don’t get too bent on having the perfect future, think about it, a roller coaster track with many twists and turns is a lot more exciting than a straight one.
So, to close off, class of 2019, remember all the memories we’ve had together even the stressful ones, so we have something to tell our grandchildren; don’t worry about the future too much because (1) ain’t nobody got hair dye money to colour back the grey hair dem and (2) it’s not entirely in our control. Just live in the present and make it awesome because trust me life is too short to not live our best lives.
Thank You
