Congratulations to all our Alberni Valley graduating students: whether you’re graduating from your first year of school in Kindergarten, or your final year at North Island College, high school or university near or far.
We applaud you all for making it through the year, no matter how easy it was or what challenges you had to overcome to make it this far.
Graduation always comes with an air of melancholy for what is being left behind, mixed liberally with excitement in what is yet to come. You can look at this time as an ending—the culmination of an exhaustive journey of knowledge. Or you can look at it as a beginning—what has come before has simply been a prelude to the main event, which is your future.
Whether you’re a student who excelled all through high school with no blips, or one who needed to lean on teachers, fellow students and family members to hold you up on your way to the finish line, you’ve made it.
While every year a student graduates is special, doing so during Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation makes it memorable.
It’s been a year of celebrating where we came from, what has transpired since then and a year of possibilities for the future. Our country, for all its faults, is pretty awesome. We should all celebrate what we have, and furthermore, the people who have made Canada what it is.
This weekend, we should also celebrate our country’s future leaders—our graduates.
This weekend promises to be hectic, with Alberni District Secondary School holding its graduation ceremonies on Friday evening, the day before the Alberni Valley throws the biggest party it’s seen in a decade. Revel in it, grads: but don’t forget to pause every once in a while, and enjoy the moment.
— Alberni Valley News