Valedictory Address

“Valedictory Address” (17 May 2001): 1-3. (UA Case 68, Box 2)

Your Honour, Mr. Chancellor, Madam President, Members of the Board, Honoured Guests, Fellow Graduates, Family and Friends. I am absolutely delighted to be graduating today and I am honoured to be giving the valedictory address. I know that it has been a long day for everyone but fear not, we are coming to the end so please join me for these last few minutes and enjoy the ride.

I have been told that it is always a good idea to start a speech with a joke so, here it goes. A lawyer, a nurse and an arts student walk into a bar a say to the bartender … No, I’m just joking. I am actually here to speak about two very serious things …dreams and ice cream.

I’ll start with the dreams. We can all relate to late nights, heavy workloads and the thought that it would just be easier to pack it all in and go home. But something always kept us going or we would have never made it this far. We all have dreams, one of which was probably to make it to this very stage. Now that we are here though, standing proud, there are new dreams and goals. The beauty of dreams is that no one can ever stop you from dreaming … nor can they stop you from realizing your dreams. So always have a dream or two and hold on to them and nurture them, for what you dream today will be what you achieve tomorrow.

Not only are dreams important but so is ice cream.

Everyone underestimates the power of ice cream to make someone happy. Same goes for swinging on the swings and riding with the windows down in the summer time. These things make me smile but they are very simple things. Everyone has little things that make them happy. And these are the things that we always forget. We forget to treat ourselves to ice cream. And we forget to laugh, really laugh, like down from our belly, rolling on the floor laugh, especially when our lives are so hectic and busy. We forget to take time out to make ourselves happy even though we all know that life is too short. We get so caught up in schedules that we forget to sit back and remember the joy that we experienced as a child, riding bikes and climbing trees and throwing water balloons.

When we were kids, our dreams of tomorrow never interfered with the enjoyment of today. The two co-existed, in harmony. As we grew up, suddenly it became more important to succeed than to relish in the present. We gradually forgot to run barefoot in the grass and make snow angels in the winter and we convinced ourselves that our time would be better spent studying or working. There is no denying that it takes hard work to reach your goals, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of enjoying today. Work hard, but play hard too. We all deserve to be happy. And happiness isn’t given to us; just like our dreams, we have to work at it too. The fantastic part about joy though is that it comes in such small packages. Like a required textbook that only costs $7 or finding a letter, not a bill, waiting for you when you get home.

Find happiness in every day; don’t wait for it to find you. Look for it in the oddest places, like finding a good parking spot or a short line up at Tim Hortons.

I guess what I am saying is, keep on dreaming and working but balance it with present happiness. Enjoy the ride. Have faith in yourself that you can reach all of your aspirations even if you take a little time out to eat ice cream. And look back on this special day with immense pride because you sacrificed so much to make it happen. We would all be lying if we said it didn’t take a lot to get here and I can’t speak for everyone here but for me, I wouldn’t change anything in the world. Not one tear, not one frustrated moment, not one textbook, professor or class and certainly not one long trudge up that hill for this day.

I wish everyone here and especially the graduates, nothing but the best. And above all, I hope that everyone always has dreams and tons of ice cream.

Thank you.