Graduating class encouraged to think outside the box

Kaity Langille-Herlehy started her valedictorian speech with a quote from the John Green novel An Abundance of Katherines.

What's the point of being alive if you don't try to do something remarkable? she said to an abundance of people packed into CN Centre Friday afternoon for the Prince George secondary school graduation ceremony.

Part of a class of 321 Grade 12 students at PGSS, Langille-Herlehy wanted to make the point that it's up to her peers to inspire their own greatness as they contemplate life beyond high school.

Graduates, I hope that you are happy on the path you choose to take after today, but more so, I hope you are never so satisfied that you are content to stop reaching for the remarkable, said the 17-year-old Langille-Herlehy.

Langille-Herlehy had all the right qualifications to be chosen valedictorian - she's perennially on the principal's list, she's popular at school, and she has a knack for speaking to an audience, albeit one much smaller than what she encountered Friday.

I've always liked writing and I have a love for English and up until this crowd I was never really nervous about public speaking, but I wasn't exactly considering 2,500 people, said Langille-Herlehy.

It's terrifying.

Conquering fears, whether they come from cramming for a provincial exam or tackling an ill-prepared hiking trip, like she did with her three older siblings when they climbed Fang Mountain in a rain/snowstorm, are memories that define happiness and success for Langille-Herlehy.

Looking back on her high school years, the good days of hanging out with her friends at the hard ice cream stand, playing video games in the basement, or playing softball in the summer on the three days of warmth we get here, far outweigh the bad memories of apathetic teachers who forget how to smile.

Until a few years ago I was going to be a kindergarten teacher because they don't remind you enough when you're young, to enjoy it, she said.

They're always trying to prepare you to grow up when I think they should just focus on where you are right now.

After a school year of teachers working without a contract under a provincewide union job action that left students without their first formal report cards until this week, now teachers have withdrawn from extracurricular activities outside of normal school hours. For teachers and students, the effects are being felt.

There's a lot of tension, and it seems like everyone's biting their tongue and nobody's saying what they want to say because nobody wants to offend anyone, said Langille-Herlehy. One of my best friends had to stop rugby this year because that was cancelled. The things you want to do in high school because you can afford to or have the time to, people are missing out on that, and it's unfortunate.

Referring to her school days as the prime suffering years because the way some students go out of their way to make life difficult for others, Langille-Herlehy thanked her teachers, especially her English teacher-mentor Mike Carson, for their efforts to build kids' self esteem and positively shape their character as they educate.

[Carson] gives kids the credit that they don't think they deserve, she said. He's everything I want to be when I grow up. I was asking him what I should do with my life, because I have so little idea, and he was saying people need to stop getting caught up in what they're going to make themselves into, and remember that you already are something.

Adults, even the best teachers, have been misunderstanding teenagers since the dawn of time and it's no different with the screen generation kids of today, who spend much of their lives attached to smart phones, computers and video games.

I think adults don't give us enough credit for thinking more outside our problems, because a lot of us do, Langille-Herlehy said.

My best friend Breanna Siemens graduated one semester early and is in Bolivia right now doing volunteer work. I'm heartbroken she's not here to hold my hand when I walk on the stage.

Langille-Herlehy plans to venture out of town for university, but not until she's saved some money to pay her own way, just like her father did to put himself through engineering school. She's well in touch with the reality that exists for new high school graduates, that without post-secondary training, the chances of locking up a well-paying career are not great.

She's not a big fan of math or sciences but took all those courses to keep the university door open.

Before, you didn't need university for a lot of jobs, said Langille-Herlehy.

Kids don't know what they want to do. We take courses for what we think we'll need and go from there. I think you have to try everything and make yourself uncomfortable in all the ways you can and put yourself out there as much as you can and hopefully something jumps out at you. I think we're all realizing how quickly the future is catching up with us.

Grad ceremonies for the other four secondary schools in the city will be at the Civic Centre over the next three weeks, including College Heights (May 25), D.P. Todd (May 26), Kelly Road (June 1) and Duchess Park (June 2).