valedictorian speech
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Today, we are gathered here for a very happy event, as we celebrate the graduation of UTM's class of 2003. I am honored to stand here today and know that we have finally achieved what we set out to do when we first walked through the doors of UTM three or four years ago, and for some of us, a few more years than that. Speaking from my personal experiences, it hasn't been the easiest road traveled, for my road at UTM certainly had quite a few bumps and pot-holes along the way. But that's life - and we've just completed another phase and are on the cusp of a new one.
But before we look ahead to what lies before us, we should pause and reflect on what we've experienced thus far and take our life-learning lessons from it, for it is the elements of our past that create the foundation of our future. We have been fortunate to have attended a tertiary pedagogic institution that places a great emphasis on not only teaching the academic lessons, but also on providing the tools and knowledge that are applicable to the lesson of life. It is here at UTM that we have had access to an education that allows us to speak our opinions and our politics, an education that is blind to race, creed, gender, age, class, disability or sexual orientation. If there is one aspect of the education that I have received at UTM that I am grateful for, it would be the ability that I have enhanced to non-discriminately think outside the proverbial 'box,' for UTM pushed me to think beyond the borders that once fenced me in. I believe that UTM is at the forefront of creating an academic space that is free from prejudice, and thus ensuring that any one person who walks through its doors is on an equal plane as the one who walked in before, and the one who walks in after. This is the kind of lesson we will take with us as we create our future...