When graduate Elizabeth Maciborsky delivered the Class of 2016 Valedictory Address she spoke of the many tears and trials every student encountered to reach the pinnacle of their young lives.
“High school has been quite the adventure for all of us,” she said, adding that while mistakes were made by all graduates, each one played an important part of who every student came to be on graduation day. “We make mistakes, but without them we would not learn.”
Maciborsky was one of 66 students honoured on June 25 at the Innisfail High School graduation day. Witnessed by hundreds of loving and proud family members and friends during a 75-minute ceremony, each graduate received hearty congratulations and messages of encouragement from several distinguished dignitaries, including Mayor Brian Spiller, Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA Don MacIntyre, Red Deer-Mountain View MP Earl Dreeshen, and Holly Bilton, trustee for the Chinook's Edge School Division.
“There are so many different things that are out there in this world and you have an opportunity to do so many great things,” said Dreeshen of the limitless choices awaiting the graduates.
Just as importantly for the graduates, who are entering a bold new chapter in their young lives, they were told to embrace failure and adversity, and to seize every opportunity for freedom. But they also heard it was important to lean on each other when the going gets tough.
“When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together,” said Bilton, while quoting a passage from American author Robert Fulghum's best-selling book All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten. “Be aware of wonder.”
Kurt Sacher, superintendent of schools for Chinook's Edge, told students he pursued a dream after graduating in 1981 at the age of 17. He was told by some his seemingly impossible quest – a bicycle journey from Calgary to San Diego, Calif. -- was “crazy,” but he did it anyway.
“If you have a dream and you own it, never let anyone else talk you out of it – ride through the resistance. If you don't have resistance your dream probably isn't big enough,” said Sacher of his ultimately successful journey.
“The last life lesson was about freedom. I have never felt as free as I did on the final leg of our adventure. Have a dream that is yours and yours alone. Own it. Live it. Do it.”
And what of the dreaded notions of failure, pondered school principal Wayne Pineau during the ceremony's closing remarks.
“They are indispensible if we want to be successful,” he said, adding he chose a theme for the past school year of overcoming failure as a focus for learning. “Because it is impossible to go through life without failing at something.”
Pineau said he is now encouraging his young students to “fail harder” because as Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work”.
“If you are trying harder with a good plan and still failing you are not necessarily losing. We only lose when we quit,” Pineau told his audience. “We go through good times when everything works. There are the hard stretches when nothing seems to go right.
“Fail harder. Overcome more. Rise up. It is the difficult seasons that make you stronger,” added Pineau. “You must continue to strain against the bonds of adversity to grasp success.”
Wayne Pineau, principal of Innisfail High School
"If you are trying harder with a good plan and still failing you are not necessarily losing. We only lose when we quit."
