1. 2016 Valedictory Speech forthe Gingerland
Secondary School
Deliveredby
Rol-JJ.E Williams
On Tuesday the twenty-secondday of November Two Thousand and
Sixteen at Nine in the Morning.

2. [Formal Greetings]
“Deep within each heart
There lies a magic spark
That lights the fire of our imagination
And since the dawn of man
The strength of just I can
Has brought together people of all nations.”
-Celine Dion
I have risen on this joyous occasiontasked and trusted with the duty to give precise
but concise representation of the five, and in some cases four year journeys of fifty-
four other students. I have been entrusted with both the personal and the overall
gains, losses; successes, failures; triumphs and sorrows of a journey that too often
seemed plagued.
It was Martin Carter who committed to paper that,
“I come from the nigger yard of yesterday,
Leaping from the oppressors’ hate and the scorn of myself,

3. From the agony of the dark hut in the shadow
And the hurt of things”
And as the graduating class clan relate,
“from the long days of cruelty and the long nights of pain
Down to the wide streets of tomorrow, of the next day,
Leaping I come, who cannot see will hear.”
Indeed, class of2016, leaping we come, who cannot see, will surely hear us and hear
about us.
Thoseof us who thought that high schoolwould have been an easy journey, got the
shock of our lives
And likewise, those who thought of high schoolas a bed of roses, found themselves
too often lying on beds of thorn.
Forthe vast majority of us, leaving Gingerland SecondarySchoolis abitter yet sweet
experience. In fact, we are overjoyed at the idea of moving on with our education or
in some cases, employment but at the same time we are leaving behind a degree of
pampering and sheltering and conduciveness to learn and prosperthat one can never
receive elsewhere, and this my friends, is not limited to just the workplace but even
rival high schools and other institutions both on and off the island.
Essentially, we have gone through one phase ofour lives, where we had to condense
hours of schoolwork, three dozenteachers each, thousands ofpages of O levelwork,

4. inter alia, into pens and pencils that at greatest, are no longer than nine centimetres.
But not only that, those four walls of the examination centre come back to my mind
so often, that I can only be reminded that we have indeed closed the door on yet
another journey of our lives.
While I am exceedingly proud but wary as a result of my own success, I must
applaud those who expedited our successes. And so, I extend gratitude to almighty
God, then to our parents, guardians and immediate family who ensured that we were
emotionally, morally, financially and academically sound children. And so I ask all
parents and family members, with the exception of mine to stand momentarily to
receive their public praise.
We must also extend deep gratitude to our teachers and administrative and ancillary
staff who served us not only in our final years but throughout this celebrated high
schooljourney. At last count, I recall that we would have comeacross fourprincipals
and well over one hundred teachers and a handful of ancillary staff who tried to
soften the blow of high school. They exhibited professionalism, deep senses of
dedication, high degrees of tolerance and gave personalsacrifices. Through all that,
they turned what often looked hopeless and made it hopeful and prosperous and it is
for that reason that I ask every single person who gave of his/her service between
the years 2011 and 2016 to the Gingerland Secondary School to stand to be
recognized publicly.

5. Now to the graduating class, I bemoan that at times, the negativity may seem unreal;
it may seem so difficult to look past. At times, the atmosphere of uncertainty may
feel palpable but I remind you that rain may fall for days upon days, but there’ll be
sunshine.
The sun could set and the moon illuminate but the sun shall rise again.
The waves may intermittently ebb but they shall flow.
And with each death, a new life is created.
I’m quite sure you all remember those days of juggling SchoolBased Assessments
with studying and homework, and coming to schoollate either because you had to
stay up late the night before or because you were home finishing up a particular
S.B.A.
I’m quite sure you all remember those days of 5A1 being converted into a computer
lab with all those laptops and flash drives, and the occasional teacher complaining
because they almost tripped over a charger.
We remember going to be the night before the exam scared at the thought of not
completing the syllabi in our studies…

6. Or we remember coming out of the exam room arguing with each other whether the
answer to multiple choice question 40 was 12 or 13,5 and the odd person, whose
identity I shall not reveal would say that they got 250 as their answer…
Or we remember coming out of the history exam with confidence becausewe knew
all the topics and we generally wrote faster than the master typist could type…
or we remember spending three hours in Accounts, looking hopelessly at Mrs
Moving and Mr Maynard because our balance sheets just didn’t balance.
Or when you have English and French and Spanish in the same week and your
opening line for your English compositionis Hello, commentvas-tu? Tienes catorce
anos. And you? For those of us who don’t have a good grasp of the foreign
languages, that one sentence encompasses three languages.
And then it all boiled down to one night in August, luckily when most ofour parents
are fast asleep, when our lives and futures were determined by that purple, blue and
white screen that crashes before you could even type in your info…
And here we are now, adorned in our royal blue academic wear, proud of ourselves,
but wary of what the future may hold.
While many may garner the absurd idea that today is only a day to celebrate myself,
I give every graduate a tip-of-the-hat and I use this opportunity to congratulate every
one of you for overcoming the challenges that seemed insurmountable.

7. And if youhave been following socialmedia for the pastweek youwould understand
that: in the graduating class we have doctors, lawyers, teachers, preachers, leaders,
you name it!
Stand and relish the moment graduating class of 2016!
The sacrifice was not only on my behalf but also on my parents’ and I dedicate every
one of the seventeen subjects and seventeen grade one passes to them and while they
may never equate to the thousands of dollars spent in schoolsupplies, extra classes,
exam fees, food and shelter, I know that my heart is less burdened knowing that my
parents are satisfied with my successes. Iinstructed them not to stand earlier because
I want them, as well as my sister Ronice, and my brother Jario, to stand at this
moment and bask in this glory, and if the rest of my family could join them, that
would be great. Thank you.
When the flowers no longer blossom and the fruit trees no longer bring fruit, you
begin to realise that friends are few.
You being to realise that it is the likes of Devonte Jones, Vinecia Gumbs, Adaijah
Stapleton ,TeveshaJames, and if they, and the restof 5A1 could stand at this moment,
that keep you competitive and sane.

8. I recall that dark night that many call results night when we were all in contactwith
each other, and we all were ecstatic at the wonderful results that we collectively
received.
It was indeed worth it!
Finally, I wish to thank all of my teachers who took me through this CSEC journey.
Caribbean History and Social Studies- Ms Tamara Morton
Chemistry- Ms Laurencia Walters and Mr Vincent Adams
Economics and Principles of Business- Mr Keith Glasgow
Electronic Document Preparation Management- Mr Eustus Saunders
English A- Mrs Susan Nisbett
English B- Ms Toney Wallace
Food and Nutrition- Mrs Jackie Mitchell
Geography- Mr David Grant
Human and Social Biology and Biology- Ms Juliette Claxton
Mathematics- Mr Cleveland Williams
Office Administration and Principles of Accounts- Ms Paulette Pemberton
And Physics- Mr John Williams and Mr Stephen Hanley, who is now of blessed
memory.
I wantto thank Mr Lovel Cranston and Ms Pearl Bergan for their immeasurable
help on multiple essays, which each time proved successful.
I also wanttothank Mr Farrel Smithen, caretakerof the Nevis YouthParliament,
for his continued support and guidance.
I admit, the journey was tough and along the way I would have lost an Aunt and my
Grandfather and at times I felt just like giving up but I held strain and fought on,

9. And that, graduating class of 2016 is all you have to do to succeed:hold strain and
fight on.
Closing
I tell you graduating class that grades do not define intelligence; the level you reach
in your academic career does not and should never determine your success level in
the long run.
Often times we are coerced into believing that as Henry Longfellow said, “the
heights of great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they
while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” I say that to say,
that as William Shakespeare said, “Someare borngreat, some achieve greatness and
some have greatness thrust upon them.”
No person, other than Jesus Christ, would ever accomplish being born great and so
the life you lead will determine whether you achieve greatness or have greatness
thrust upon you.
The latter, that is, having greatness thrust upon you, should never happen either.
After all, our school song rallies us to believe, that
“Thestars are far away, the difficulties great, and how shall we allay the fears that
cowards make… but man has reached the moon, the stars which twinkle right do
beckon us how soon we’ll launch to further light.

10. That further light is all our futures.
Thank you very much for your attentiveness and congratulations class of 2016;
we have seen it, believed it, and done it!