Graduation Night speech

That will be my speech (: *

Graduation Night Speech 2008

A very good evening to our Guest of Honour __________, Principal Ms Ho, Vice Principal Mr. Chan, Teachers and my fellow schoolmates. I am very honoured to have the privilege to represent the 4E graduating classes of 2008 to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the staff in Boon Lay Secondary School for creating a fantastic journey throughout our 4 years of education.

Looking at where we currently are now and comparing to how we were like during our first year in the school, one can notice how much we have changed over the course of time. Throughout the years, with the guidance and help given by our teachers, we have matured emotionally and intellectually.

My four years in Boon Lay Secondary School was certainly not a totally smooth sailing journey, but it was a really quick one and it still feels like yesterday since I just entered Boon Lay Secondary School. For me, my first two years in the school were full of struggles. As my batch was the 1st batch of classes who took part in the HEARTS project work, there were simply no seniors who can advise us on doing the project work and we have to learn to work independently to complete our project. The HEARTS programme really makes our school stand out from other schools because it combines the different elective subjects together and field trips were organized as part of our learning. So we are all unique students!

Secondary 3 was one of the best years I had in the school. Last November, I enjoyed the once in a life time experience of being part of Boon Lay Secondary School’s 30th anniversary project and embarked on a humanitarian trip to LAOS with a group of 15 students and 6 teachers. The aim of the trip was to experience the true meaning of giving by contributing our best to the people who needs our assistance. Year 2007 was the first year that Boonlayians embarked on such a trip. It is indeed a thrilling experience for me to be part of the team and render our services to our adopted village. In the one week that we spent together in LAOS, we were able to cooperate among ourselves and bring joy and laughter into the lives of the children in LAOS.

I can remember an incident that happened during our trip, where most of our students fell ill after a few days in the village and the student leaders of the 3 classes faced the problem of manpower shortage. Come to think of it, for a typical Singaporean like you and me, what do you think will come to our minds in such situations? We might have just pushed all our responsibilities to others and run away from all unnecessary workloads right? But during the LAOS trip, all of us knew with conviction that our greatest desire was to leave a positive impact on the lives of the people in our adopted village. We cooperated well with one another to prepare good lessons and activities so as to enrich the education of the Laotian students.

On the other hand, there were many things that we learnt from the Laotians. Their contentment with the simple things in life and positive learning attitude are deeply engraved in our minds. Looking at how closely-knitted the Laotian families are, we learn to be filial to our beloved parents because it is definitely not an easy task for our parents to bring us up. We also learn the importance of resilience and perseverance by overcoming the obstacles that came along the way. Over there, we looked forward to return to Singapore to share our pleasant memories with the rest of our peers. Today, I am glad to have the opportunity to share my experience with the entire graduating cohort.

My fourth year was a grueling one. I will never forget those countless remedial sessions that we had for the entire year, some of which ended as late as 6’o clock in the evening. It was very tiring because studying in the afternoon made us sleep easily. Come to think of it again, do you think it is worth it? Well, the minority will say ”wow its wasting my time I shouldn’t have come for remedials” or “ I have given up subjects… I think I cant make it for the O level” or for the majority will say “ Yes! Remedials do helped us in our studies… and I’m confident that I will make it through the O level” Some of you might want to discuss this issue among yourselves later but as for me, I think that remedials were extremely beneficial for us, even though lessons were boring at times, because this is the last year of our secondary school education, and what can be more important than giving our best shot of what we can do in the O’ level examinations and spending time with our friends in school? Don’t you guys agree with me? I really wonder… if there is any other occasion in future when we can still gather together- Sitting down together as one, laughing and sharing jokes together as one OR studying together as one again like what we used to be… Things will eventually change down the road so my advice to everyone is, to cherish every precious moment with your friends right now in this graduation ceremony as in future we might not be able to have the privilege to enjoy this joyful occasion with our secondary school friends ever again.

Last but not least, I hope everyone will be able to make it through our worst nightmare, the O level examination , with flying colours. Cheers and Good luck!

Thank you

(Written by: Meldric Lim 4E7 / 2008 / Boon Lay Secondary School)