Mr.Chairman, honoured guests, parents, teachers and fellow Graduates.
Tonight it is my pleasure and my privilege to deliver the valedictory address on behalf of the Graduating Class of 1962.
Our meeting here tonight is an occasion of great delight to all of us, and affords a moment to pause and reflect on what has gone before.
Six years ago, when most of us first entered this house of learning, this evening of our graduation seemed very far away. We have enjoyed the days that have passed, and we look eagerly to those yet to come. I am sure that, whatever the future brings, some of our fondest memories will be of this night. While knowing that each of my fellow graduates has his own personal memories of our years together, I shall endeavour to say goodbye to a host of associations we have shared with each other.
We have all experienced our moments of pride in our small accomplishments as well as the brief periods of disappointment and depression over our failures; but with the encouragement of those wonderful people our parents and teachers, we have finally arrived at this most important milestone in our lives.
There is a quotation from "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran which I feel is most descriptive of teachers we have known. "If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind." And so for us has come a greater awakening and ability to think. We have come to appreciate that education is a lifetime effort and that to grow one must have an eager and searching mind.
Tonight marks the beginning of new adventures and an opportunity to apply these abilities which we have developed. We have seen in our short span of life great advances made by peoples of all nations in many fields of endeavour, those most dramatic being in the sciences and the political awakenings of new nations. When used for the betterment of mankind science offers through our searchings - a wonderful promise. In world politics, we have seen some of the results of mans desire and determination to better his lot.
A greater tolerance and need for understanding is essential if we are to live together and work together as we must to make a better world. To meet these new challenges, we must use to the fullest the skills and talents we have acquired and will acquire in order that we, as citizens of this great country of ours, can continue to keep Canada and Canadian thought a force in world affairs and development.
It is difficult to describe the emotions we feel as we realize the new responsibilities we are to assume. Relief is there, regret also and an overwhelming sense of not being quite ready. Finally there is excitement and some sadness. For we know we have all reached that first dividing of life's roads that the poet Robert Frost described so well when he said, "'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took that one less travelled by."
I hope that all of us, years hence, may smile as we say, "And that has made all the difference."
