Every high school graduate has a story to tell. Everyone who has made it through to the end of grade 12 has experienced successes, failures, disappointments and triumphs leading up to this moment, but what you have been through in your final term of high school is not something any of us experienced or predicted.
Whatever you have had to overcome these last few months, and in all your years leading up to this milestone: Congratulations! I hope you take the time to celebrate (while respecting health guidelines, of course.)
I also want to congratulate your teachers, parents and loved ones for their hard work in supporting you throughout your school years. I know the joy, pride and love we feel as we watch our children in this rite of passage.
I like to offer graduates a favourite quote from one of history’s most celebrated learners, Albert Einstein, who said: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
For all of us the last few months have been new and stressful and sometimes scary, but it has also opened doors to new possibilities and ways of looking at our world; doors that I hope you will burst through with passion and curiosity, and a desire to change things for the better.
I will tell you that this will make some of us older folks uncomfortable at times. Please be kind and patient, but also be persistent. We need to be made uncomfortable.
The future is yours. I can’t wait to see what you do with it.
Rachel Blaney is the Member of Parliament for North Island-Powell River.
