Anastacia Taleb

Good evening to all those present, faculty, teachers, parents, and fellow classmates,

It’s official! The class of 2025 prepares to say goodbye.

Everything comes to pass. It isn’t a strange notion. Yet, for some reason, I keep on tracking the hands of the clock as they count down these last few moments of our common journey.

While I was thinking about what I wanted to begin with today, I flipped through some old yearbooks and decided to go searching for some memories. Then, I stumbled upon a poem I had written in sixth grade. And I found a certain message there.

Follow your dreams                        See your future 

                          Find it in front of you 

That’s one part of it, and I chose another, as well.

Time passes                                   Faster than expected 

As you grow up                             And mature that’s it 

Mind your own business               And don’t be too curious 

And find yourself some friends     That you could miss

These lines can be interpreted in different ways, but I believe that they are rather fitting for today.

I’d like to thank my parents for helping me learn their importance over the years and for providing much needed moral support.

No matter how hard the past few years have been, we made it.

Everything comes to pass, but not everything stays stored in one’s memory forever. Life is memorable — to an extent.

For instance, I remember rather well the day I came to school with my parents for the first time to register. The questions I was asked, like, was I excited, did I like it here… Over the years, I saw the changes that followed when we progressed through our classes. New classrooms, new teachers, new activities, but the old ones we knew remained unchanged.

Thank you Mrs. Layla. Because of your evident efforts, our little school grew into a successful community that offers all its members equal opportunities for growth.

We are now in an in-between space because this is neither an ending nor a new beginning. This is a transition from the past to our future, and I say we hope for new, memorable experiences.

The difference between Us now and Us in a few years is that now we still remember much of what happened, both our successes and our failures, but eventually, school will turn into one of our happier memories because technically, school was our childhood. And I’d like to thank all of you for being a part of these moments that I will cherish forever.

All comes and goes. But, now, we’re still here. And I’d like to take this moment to mention our teachers. All of them. Those that taught us from kindergarten until this last year. They all played a huge part in who we became and will become. They influenced our performance and our attitude… When they praised and scolded the class on multiple occasions.

We’re still standing here together, possibly for the last time. This is our day, and we must enjoy it in any way we can. We only graduate once, after all.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who witnessed our journey from the beginning and helped make it what it was. It wasn’t perfect, but nothing really is. And I wouldn’t wish it to be any different.

Thank you.