Valedictory Address

"Valedictory Address" (28 May 2008): 1-4. (UA Case 68, Box 3).

President Mclaughlin, Dean Rich, Dean Coleman, Dean Haggerty, honorable guests, parents and of course, graduates:

Well, it has been an uphill battle for the past couple years but we've finally made it to the top -literally. And after four or five years of climbing that hill, it never got any easier, it only got sweatier.

Being at the top of the hill, education students have learned to make friends despite frequent body odor, business students got through it knowing they only had to climb the hill until Thursday, and most kinesiology students felt at ease knowing they had showers in the basement of their faculty building.

This hill has seen us not only fall on icy patches in the winter, race to class when we're running late, or play ultimate Frisbee in the quad, but it has also seen us meet the many challenges that we have faced while on this campus.

The past couple of years have flown by, but not without leaving us with a few lessons that we will take with us into the future.
A good friend once told me that, "if it's not difficult, it's not worth it" which, in retrospect, has proven to be very true again and again.

Coming from northern Ontario, I didn't know a single person my first night on campus. A few hours after dropping being dropped off, I called my parents, who were back on their way through Quebec, and asked them to turn around and come pick me up.

As you can clearly see, they said no. And coming to UNB on my own has ended up being one of the best decisions I have ever made. Minutes after that phone conversation I met my neighbor Mike and in the next few days, everyone else who lived in Harrison House.

It is funny to think that all of us here today were all together once before in this arena for Blast Off at the beginning of Orientation. We were scared, nervous and excited about the year to come and the beginning of university.

The next few years would be the best of our lives. And now here we are all together again, scared, nervous and excited about what is to come.

The only things that have changed since then have been for the better. We sit here now, a few years older, more educated and with a million stories of the good times we've had on this hill.
One of the first things I ever learned at UNB I learned from a friend in residence who was telling us about her adventures from the previous evening.

She had gone out on a Monday night while the rest of us had stayed in to study. I will always remember what she told us that day in the cafeteria: "Come on guys, you can always retake a test, but you can never relive a party."

This may not seem like a valuable lesson, especially since it came from a first year student and was directed to a bunch of other first year students who probably couldn't afford to retake a course, but underneath it all, it meant that we had to live life to the fullest, that we would only be first year students living in residence together for a short time and soon we would have to face the world beyond this university campus. And so, in a way she was right, and it was some of the best advice I got all year.

Learning to live with others is also a big lesson I'm sure most of us have come to learn while at UNB. You learn that everyone has come from a different place and everyone was raised in a different way.
You learn patience, understanding and above all, compassion for the people who become your family for the eight months or four years that you decide to share your rent with them.

You come to accept that anything embarrassing you do at home will be a story that your friends will never let you forget but, it is those same friends who will teach you that their friendships will outlast, any rainy day, any failing grade or any broken heart and that a friend, as well as a 22 inch pizza at Jack's is only a phone call away.

Mid-way through, we had all found our favorite spot to study in the library, we knew what time to be at the social club in order to get a table for trivia, and we also began to see that our time here would not last forever.

How astute of Trooper to sing: "we're here for a good time (not a long time)". As some friends began to graduate, we began to think about the future and how we would leave our mark on the world.
What would we major in and where would our time here at UNB take us? But these worries could be easily brushed aside with things like pub crawls, theme parties, road trips and finals.

As things approached an end, we learned that a thesis or a senior project are really just another word for a whole lot of all-nighters and that lack of motivation and, recently, Facebook were the only thing keeping us from graduating.

We learned that things are better in real life. The people we've seen on a daily basis for the past couple years may not be in our day to day lives in the future and although we will keep in touch, the time we have together now is the best time in the world.

In an education course this year, we were told that, "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship". In class, we talked about how success is often due to the support and the encouragement we receive from the people around us and what better place to see how true this is than in this arena today.

We are surrounded by our parents and family who have supported us through good times and bad, they have helped us move all of our stuff back and forth to Fredericton, helped us to make some difficult decisions and they have stood back and allowed us to become whatever we aspired to be.

On top of all that, I don't think any of us would be here today if they weren't always there to lend, or give us a little financial aid even if we weren't always the most reasonable consumers. Let's face it, it is thanks to some of their contributions that the Cellar continues to do so well every year.

We sit here with our professors who have helped us to essentially complete our degrees and stay on track. They have encouraged us to come to class, expand our minds and have forgiven us when we couldn't get that paper in on time.

And we are among our friends who have been there through it all. They have helped us to stumble home after a rough night at Nicky Z's, they have studied with us at the HIL for hours on end or convinced us that that much studying is never necessary, they have kept things in perspective and if it weren't for them, none of the funny or embarrassing things you have ever done, would ever be remembered.
And what about the relationship we've had with this town. Fredericton has really been a great place to foster this learning and these great relationships that we've had.

From the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in September, to the Diplomat for pancakes at 3 a.m., and O'Dell park in the fall to the Playhouse for a great show - there's never been a dull moment. Where else can you see Joel Plaskett or Wintersleep perform in a bar smaller than some student apartments, run into everyone you've ever met on a Saturday morning at the market or canoe your way down Queen Street in the spring?

And so, we must ask ourselves, how significant have these relationships really been in our lives? In our learning?

I think on a day like today we can especially see, that the most significant thing we have learned, is that it is the relationships we have made here at UNB and what we have learned from them that will be the most significant thing we can take with us into the future. What you will carry with you, is what you have learned and shared together.

Within this campus, we have stood together as a community. We were together in residence, or in class, in study groups at the library or in line at the bookstore. The people we have met in these groups were the people who have helped us through any difficult course or complicated situation that life has thrown at us.

The world beyond this moment will be one in which we will all go out as individuals to face new responsibilities and new challenges, knowing that we will use what we have learned from these relationships here to succeed. Why were we always at the Cellar or the SUB, in the library or out with our roommates and friends? We were there to be together because in these relationships we found humanity and the support we needed to succeed.

I know that if we can continue to accept the mistakes we make and learn from them, if we can be enthusiastic about the things we do and will come to do, and if we can enjoy life and the people in it, we WILL certainly make a significant difference in our world.

And so as we each look ahead to a new future, like we did when we came to UNB for the first time, we can now see that "it takes courage to let go of the seemingly secure and comfortable, but there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.

Real security is in adventure, because in movement there is life and in independence there is power. And although, you may be embarking on this adventure alone, remember that because of the significant relationships we have made here, we will always be accessible to each other in the future for anything as small as advice on a lesson plan, a business plan or a sports injury to anything as large as changing the world.

So may the hills you will climb in the future be made easier by the one you have graduated from together today.

Congratulations class of 2008 -I wish you all the best!