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The Cess Pool of My MindMay 12 This Is The Speech
It is with great pleasure that I am here before you to congradulate the class of 2009 on behalf of the town of High Prairie, Mayor Rick Dumount and the rest of town council. When I was asked to make this speech I knew that I had to have this picture you see on screen here as part of it. Of course as I thought about it I realized that most of this class might not have any idea as to who Calvin and Hobbes are, so please bare with me a moment. The Calvin and Hobbes comic strip depicted the adventures of a six year old boy and his stuffed tiger Hobbes. Of course to Calvin, Hobbes was a living breathing tiger with whom he had many debates and adventures. To everyone else Hobbes was simply Calvin's stuffed tiger. No one else could see Hobbes as Calvin could, and as such missed out on a great deal. When the strip ended in 1995 the last thing Calvin says is " It's a magical world Hobbes ol' buddy.... Let's go exploring." With those words the two friends walked away through the snow to find those adventures. If we take this poster to be a look 20 years into the future it certainly looks like Calvin did find those adventures. Here we see him as a man who has passed down his most cherished possesion to his daughter. Here is the lesson in all of this. When we are children we see the world differently. We see endless possibilities and adventures. Nothing is impossible when we are kids. As we get older though we seem to see the world in a different light. Our stuffed tigers no longer talk or go on adventures with us. Calvin has obviously grown up, but has not lost sight of who he was. We all grow up at some point (I'm actually looking forward to it myself) and have to take on the responsibilities of an adult. What we don't have to do is lose our sense of wonder, our joy of discovery, our belief in ourselves or the ability to talk to our stuffed tigers. Don't put away your childish things. Your tigers , your posters , your keepsakes. Save them and treasure them and when it is time give them to YOUR children and tell them about these things and why they were important to you. These things symbolish who you are in the here and now. Never forget who you are. Tell your children about yourself, because trust me if YOU don't do it your parents certainly will and you don't want some exagerated story about you to be told to your children do you? Believe in yourself, believe in each other and encourage each other throughout life. Be a positive influence for the world to see. Again, congratulations to you all, thank you for having me here. It has been an honour to be allowed to address you today. May 09 Graduation Speeches Once more I was asked to give the graduation speech for the grad class this year. Once more I tried to come up with something original and unique. Have you ever listened to the speeches that the dignitaries give at these things? I seriously think that they have a file folder of speeches that they pull these things out of. If not that then the speeches have no life. They sound lame, probably because they ARE lame. Most are delivered in a flat monotone voice that tells me that these people would rather be anywhere else. Or that they really don't care about these kids, or have already prejudged them in life.
Maybe part of the problem is that these people have had no interaction with the kids really. Maybe they just don't care. Well I may not always know these kids, but I am always going to give a speech from the heart that is different from all the rest. In fact if I am honoured to again speak at next years grad I already have an idea or two about what I am going to say. Yes it will be different.... April 09 Twilight The Movie At first I refused to watch Twilight until I had the book read. Then Dawn would not let me watch it until she had the book read.
She finished it tonight and since we dont work tommorow I convinced her that we should watch it tonight. Was not really that hard.
So which was better?
The book of course, it always is. HOWEVER.... The people who played the main characters in the movie were all very close to how I had them pictured except for one.
I would recomend you read the book first though bcause it goes into WAY more depth and you will understand soem of the sub text in the movie better if you do.
So now off to bed and book three! April 01 Don't Stop As those of you who have read this for years and for the two of you who are still reading it you know that my favorate song is Don't Stop Beleving by Journey. I have always wanted either American Idol or Canadian Idol actually have someone sing it. Well AI did tonight and boy oh boy.
The first three were really good. The next three SUCKED ( although Dawn just told me that the blonde went home) and then the LAST guy singing blew me away.
Now I hope he sings the whole song himself one night.... March 30 The Stars Above Last night as I went down to the curb with my trash I did something I had not done in a very long time. I looked up. The night sky was clear and cool. The stars above twinkled and shone like I had not seen in some time. There weer no clouds at all and this is really what has been keeping me from seeing the stars.
It was really quite breathtaking. If you have not looked up into the night sky latley I suggest you do so.
For me it was a shock to see that which I once took for granted and had not seen in some time.
I did not realize how much I missed the stars until I saw them again. March 29 Twilight I am not normally one to fall into the whole " OH MY GAWD YOU HAVE TO DO THIS CATIGORY!!!"
I like to be my own person and do my own thing. I did not really see a trailer for this new movie Twilight and when I heard it was also a book series I did not bat an eye. However I started to hear how good this series was from more then just teeny boppers. So when I was in Wal Mart the other day I saw that they had all four books in the bin I grabbed them all. After all, if I did not grab all of them then I would not have the next one ready to read when I finished the first one.
After the first chapter I was hooked.
The characters seemed to come alive off of the pages. I could see them in class, at lunch in that small dull town.
So my advice to you is to get these books and read them. So far I am on chapter 10 of the first book.
And now I am off to bed to find out what happens next.... March 26 Rachels Challenge A couple of weeks ago here in town we had a conference on bullying. Things to look for ways to prevent it and things like that. The keynote speaker for the conference was a young man named Craig Scott. For most people that name does not mean a thing. It did not mean anything to me before that night. Now it is a name I will never forget.
Craig was a student at Columbine. He was there, in fact he was pretty much in the middle of it. His friends were killed next to him in the library and his sister Rachel was the first person killed. The message that Craig was passing on was not about the shooters though. It was about his sister and how she lived her life.
Rachel Scott was a kind hearted young teenager who believed in treating others with respect, no matter how different they were. She believed that she would change teh world just by being good to people. She believed that she would " Start a revolution" of people being nice and treating others with respect.
Rachel kept journals of her thoughts as well. Pages and pages filled with hope.
The two boys who murdered her and so many others used the same words Rachel used in a video they had made. They also wanted to " Start a revolution." The difference was that their revolution was one of hate and destruction while Rachels was one of hope and promise. On April 20th 1999 these two revolutions collided and like most revolutions those that started them were all killed.
The message that Rachels brother Craig was getting to us was that if you focus on the positive things then the world becomes a better place for us all.
Craig played the 911 tapes from that day and watching him I could see him go back to that day when he was a teenager scared shitless hiding under a table waiting to die BUT.... Craig chose to take up his sisters cause and tell people her story, and his. It was never said really but Craig was not the nicest guy in high school. So now he goes from town to town , as does his family, to tell Rachels story. To try to prevent Columbine from happening again.
Now I am not really getting his point across very well here, but I am posting a link to the Wiki artical about his sister. Read it , and if you get the chance to go to a Rachels Challenge workshop in your town do it. I swear to you that it will change your life.
One last thing. Craig encouraged everyone to keep a journal of their thoughts and ideas so that once your gone, whenever that may be, your family and friends can look back and once more share ideas with you. So it is because of that that I am going to make an effort to once more blog on a regular basis. I can not say that I will write twice a day every day like I did before, but I do plan on writting more then once every couple of months. Most of my readers are gone I know, but perhaps I will find new ones.
And so on that note I give you, the LINK!
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