Baccalaureate

Definition of Class of 2009 (n.) :
Crazy Nights,
Sports Highlights,
Late Night Dances,
High School Romances,
Friendships That Were Made,
Memories That Will Never Fade,
To Each And Every Friend,
It's Our Beginning,
Not The End.
- Alicia McClelland and Jodi Wendorf





( A.J Burton en de meisjes na Baccalaureate )

Hey allemaal,

Onze eerste schoolceremonie is al voorbij, namelijk ' Baccalaureate '.
Rond 19 uur gisterenavond gaf Chris Page met een gebed het startschot voor een mooie terugblik op ons jaar. Ik was keinerveus omdat ik een speech moest geven, maar het is allemaal supergoed gegaan! Toen ik op het podium stapte waren alle bibbers verdwenen, en ik voelde mij een beetje als Barack Obama toen bleek dat alles keivlot ging en zonder fouten. De speech is vanonder te vinden.

Na mijn speech was het de beurt aan Mrs. Ford, onze U.S History leerkracht, en die beschreef onze klas door middel van de letters van het alfabet. Mrs. Ford is kei-emotioneel geworden. 't Is precies niet voor iedereen even makkelijk om afscheid te nemen.

Na een kort bijbelvers, voorgelezen door Sydney, was het de beurt aan Jeff Bader, een jeugdwerker, om te spreken. Hij somde de ' 11 rules of life ' op door Bill Gates, en daar kon niet anders als mee gelachen worden :-)

Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Na een korte presentatie van onze ' Senior video ' door Jack en Jordan hebben Brooke, Kayla en Jodi de avond afgesloten met een kort tekstje over ons laatste jaar.
Vervolgens zijn we op de tonen van ' Don't Stop Believin ' van Journey, ons klaslied, de Gym uitgestapt. Ik was toch opgelucht dat alle stress voorbij was :-)

Hier komt de speech! Sommige dingen kunnen voor jullie misschien wat raar klinken, zoals de ' I Remember ' lijst, maar hier begreep iedereen het en was het een gelegenheid om eens goed te lachen :D

Student Address : By Pieter Van Leuven, Foreign Exchange Student ( zo stond het in't boekje )

Goodevening everyone,

It's a beautiful night for a Baccalaureate, and I have some things that I would like to share with all of you guys. For the people who don't know me, I have a quick introduction : My name is Pieter Van Leuven, I'm 19 years old, I come from Belgium, and for one year, I have had the opportunity to be an exchange student at Brown City High School.

I requested to have a speech at this Baccalaureate, because it didn't feel right to me to leave the United States without saying the proper ' Goodbye's ' and ' Thank You's '. And those ' Thank you's ' could go on forever, because it's not me who made this a succesful year, it's all of you guys.

Although it's a long list, there are definitely some people I'd like to mention in this speech. People who have played significant roles in my life as a foreign exchange student.

First of all, I'd like to take the time to say thanks to my hostfamily. Tina, Brandon, Jeremy and Jacob, I feel like I have known you guys forever. I'm sure life wasn't always easy with a teenager in the house, but you guys have done a wonderful job at accepting me into your home and family. Not only did I have the luxury of being placed in a family with two amazing hostparents like Tina and Brandon, I also got two new little brothers who mean the world to me now. There are no words to describe my love and appreciation for them.

Not only my hostfamily played an important role in my exchange. The school did too. That is why I would also like to show my gratitude to Mister Roper for letting me continue my education at his school. If it wasn't for him, I probably would have never met a lot of people I am talking to today. A big thank you also goes to my teachers : Mr. Blake, Mrs. Knappins, Mrs. Coon, Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Harnden, and to the rest of the staff, for educating me, for showing me around the school when I got lost, and for being helpful all year long.

Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone in the Brown City community. This includes people I've met at random places like the store or the high school gym, and people from other places that I got to know in Brown City.

When I was writing this speech yesterday, that was my last line. And I kept on thinking, this is still kind of short, I must have forgotten some people!
Until it struck me that I hadn't even mentioned my friends yet.

This is for all the seniors.

I wish I could take all of you guys to Belgium with me. I kept a website for my parents and friends at home to read, and more than 200 entries prove that we have shared some awesome moments together. Although 10 months is not enough to get to know all these talented and extraordinary people, it sure is enough time to create friendship bonds that will last a lifetime.

I've made a really tiny list of things that, to me, are worth remembering, and I would like to share this list with you tonight. I just wrote ' I remember ' on my piece of paper and started thinking about my year. Here it goes.

I remember

- the first time I tasted Peanut Butter, at Katie Collier's birthday party

- the time that my hostbrothers, Jacob and Jeremy, showed me how to combine that peanut butter with jelly on a sandwich, and I remember calling them crazy because " Who would ever mix those two together? " ( de peanut butter and jelly sandwich is iets waar Amerikaanse kinderen mee opgroeien, een beetje zoals onze boterham met Nutella )

- going to Taco Bell for the first time, with Kayla Parr and Stewart Peterson, and the many times after that

- the trip to Florida with my hostfamily and hostgrandparents, and how they buried me in the sand, dumping bread and balony on me, laughing because the seagulls were picking at my toes

- the first time it snowed

- 3 months later, because it was still snowing

- my first Halloween, my first Thanksgiving and my first All-American Christmas

- my polar bear dive at Lexington with Michael Craigen, Gus Dufort and some other friends

And last but not least, I remember becoming Snowcoming King, and telling everyone in Belgium about it.

I'm going to end this list now because it can go on forever.

As I have come to the end of this speech, I have a last thank you for everyone in this room. For listening, and for contributing to a wonderful year.

They always say that home is where the heart is. And that is definitely true. But my heart is at two places now, and I'll always have a second home to return to.

Thank You.

Voila, dat was het. En in't echt duurde dat maar 7 minuten :-)

Groetjes,
Pieter