24th June 2005

Year 11

Graduation Ball

For all those who continue to inspire me through love and friendship, and those who make a difference in my life¡K for KGV - Class of 2007.

What a way to end our GCSEs; great atmosphere, great performances, great people; what a night!  (Supposedly For Members of KGV - Class of 2007) But before you start scrolling down, take a moment to reflect on your life at KGV, particularly regarding friendship, your growing experiences and, generally, how you reacted to and learned from various situations presented to you along the way.  I¡¦d like to briefly express my reflections.

We often like to stay firmly secured in a tight friendship circle and only sometimes step out to meet one or two new friends, who never seem to match those closest to us.  But what we¡¦re missing out is an opportunity to grow, an opportunity to learn lifelong valuable lessons, and a chance to express our love and to realise our true values.  How do I know this?  Well, I was a victim of such insecurity through the first two years of life at KGV.  Although the mere thought of a missed opportunity is distressful, the experience actually paves the way to new opportunities and a chance to change, and change for the better.  Friendship ¡V something that we must choose to let live; something that never dies.

"I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love."
- Mother Teresa

Opening our eyes to new experiences means opening our hearts to new people who we meet along the way.  Even if it means we must sacrifice something that we may consider important to us or whether it involves pain (of any sort: physical or mental), misfortune, or failure, we must continue move on as possibility thinkers with mountain-moving faith.  In other words, we must expect success:

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said, "Hope is the great power that can move you to success. Why? Because when a man expects to win, he does not hold anything back, but gives his project all that he's got. Most people fail not because they lack ability, intelligence, or opportunity, but they fail because they don't give it all they've got."

Through my experiences, I believe that the ingredients for general success (in life) includes, essentially, love, which opens many other doors in our lives including positivity, integrity, our ability to forgive, and inner-joy and inner-peace, to name a few.  Consider this:

"Tell people confidently that you are going to win," a young man was advised, who was running for office. "But what if I lose? What would I say then?" The response was simple: "If you lose you can walk right up to them and say, well, at least I had the faith that I was going to win!' Have you ever seen anyone win public office when he did not predict victory?"

I know that I have much to learn and much to develop.  What really helped me through my life at KGV was the strength of friendship and, through it all, my family.

Someone once said: ¡§Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.¡¨

Through my experiences, I urge you to, first of all, love your family: when Mother Teresa received her Nobel Prize, she was asked the question, "What can we do to promote world peace?"  She replied... "Go home and love your family."  Another thing that I have come to accept and something that I am sure we all find hard to agree with is to ¡§love your enemies¡¨.  Although this is a Christian principle and so you may not agree with this particular teaching (as I have come to accept), I must admit that exercising forgiveness in others will only set yourself free.  Adding on, I urge you to go out and meet new people, even if you may know them to have a shaky reputation or for whatever reason thinkable; love is essential, and so is friendship.  Last but not least, don¡¦t be shy to reach out to other people and stand up to what you believe is right.  I know that it will be hard at times but remember:

Learn that there are people who love you dearly, but simply have not yet learned how to express or show their feelings.

Thank you for making the world a better place for me and I hope that I have made the world a better place for you.  Continue to inspire others with your love and friendship.  Continue to inspire the world with a heart of gold as pure as yours.  Thank you all!

 ENJOY THE PHOTOS!

Me and Michelle Before Leaving For The Prom