Thursday, June 14, 2012

Appreciation and Retirement Speech

I would not have posted this on here, but I was asked to by certain people, so I hope those of you who were not included approve as much as the many audience did last night. Now if you would have been in me before saying saying this speech.....Butterflies Alert! But it turned out not soo bad after all. I have always wanted to write my own graduation speech, but never had the chance to, so when I was asked to write a speech from behalf of our colony, the parents, and students, I grabbed the opportunity. So here goes... First off, I would like to thank everyone for attending the retirement and appreciation supper in honor of our teacher, Mrs. Alice Baker. Mrs. Baker taught school, grade one through nine, at the Hulbert Hutterite School for 32 1/2 years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for all she has done and accomplished in the past years. Mrs. Baker gave us something no one will ever be able to take away from us. She gave us an education which is one of the key points of getting through life. Living in a colony we often don't further our education from grade nine, but being finished with school is not the end. We keep learning from experiences in everyday life, and to learn these experiences we often use the education she has given us. Most importantly, she always encouraged us to never stop reading. Reading can take us to places we will never be able to see with our own eyes. (After all I have been to Europe more times than Leonardo Da Vinci himself!) It can teach us things we never had the opportunity to those nine years we were under the influence of such a great teacher. If we never stop reading we never stop learning. This is something most of us have held onto very strongly. Along with education, she taught us many valuable life lessons. One being, Be Responsible, Actions have Consequenses! This slogan was always enforced in our classroom. Think before you do something, if it will affect your future in a bad way, refrain. Be responsible! Another thing was common sense. Most decisions gone wrong in everyday life is due to the lack of common sense. Mrs. Baker always taught us to use ours. She taught us that common sense is the basic practical knowledge, and judgement that we all need to help us live in a reasonable safe way. In life there are good things and bad. Many times one single thing can be used for both. Take a knife for instance, it can be used to cut your food, or can be a great convienience for everyday work. But it can also be used to hurt someone. Use your common sense, use it for good. We cannot help the world from spinning out of control, but alot of times we can help ourselves and those around us by using our common sense. Thank You, Mrs.Baker for using this example to help us understand. When certain situations arise and we are forced to make a decision, or when we are in charge of matters, I always think of her words. "Think outside the box. Don't be narrow minded. Use your imagination. Don't be blunt." This will make for a successful life. Our teacher always taught us that education is a two way process. The teacher can come 50% of the way, but the student has to meet her there, therefore doing their part too. Without such communication the outcome cannot be a success. Another thing we would like to say thank you for are the unique and simple learning techniques you came up with to help us understand better. We know you sometimes stayed up half the night thinking about them, but these are things we still use today. She taught us that as years go by we will not remember the things we had or were given. We will remember the quality time with certain people, the love and kindness that was spent with doing things together. She made us all feel special and unique. Mrs. Baker always said we were just like her own children. She said it's not how big the gift is, its the thought behind it that counts. She told us that at the end of the day if we tried our hardest and did our best, we were all winners. Her remarkable honesty and fairness is a rare nature to find these days. She often went through much distress to plan the best fieldtrips for us, to make the best that can be for one in their school years. The colorful classrooms she created for each season and occation were of great imagination and made the atmosphere of learning light and fun. The most important thing I will always remember about our teacher was, she never broke a promise. I could go on forever with praise for your hard work, so let me just say, alot of times you made the classroom a joyful place to be in with your brilliant ideas. And although most of the time we had too much extra energy to realize, or were too blind to see, we would not have wanted anyone else to educate us. I have tried my best to make this speech as colorful as you taught me to with writing skills, that I can, but suddenly I find myself at a loss of words of how to thank you. Let me say we are honored to call you our teacher. You are a true role model, and someone we will always look up to. We hope we can teach our generations only half as much as you have taught us. In return we will ask God to bless you, we wish you a great retirement. You deserve the best! Thank You Mrs. Baker, thank you for the awesome gift. Thank You from the bottom of our hearts, we are eternally greatful!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Here's a very common question, "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?" More common answers are, "Hawaii. The Bahamas. Mexico." And your point is? Ahh! The beaches! A great vacation! Sounds awesome to me too, but I have a slightly different answer. Europe. And my point is....? History! Rome! Vatican City! Leonardo da Vinci! The Renaissance period! Oh I could just fall in love! I mean have you never wondered how awesome it would be to lavish your eyes on all the surroundings in Vatican City? St. Peter's Square is enough to get you going! Imagine taking in every aspect of the Basilica (St. Peter's), just knowing that it is the largest church in the world! Imagine walking over that floor and knowing that one of history's greatest influences, St. Peter, is possibly buried beneath! Getting a glance of creations made by Renaissance artists. After all Raphael was one of the architects! Let this tease your mind. The Louvre. At night! The grand pyramid, being hugged by the palace with warm lights of all shades, pronouncing every detail ever meant to see. Look closer, you might see some things meant to be kept a secret. ;) This palace, this Grand Louvre of which I speak houses one of the greatest paintings ever done, by one of the most complex individuals to challenge history. I preferably point to da Vinci, and the Mona Lisa. Can you just see yourself squinting your eyes, and moving your head from side to side to see if you could possibly discover the secret hidden in her smile. Could is really be that the figure in the photo can be seen as both male or female, as some have assumed? Going back to da Vinci. It's not that I admire him because I agree to every single idea he has ever had, or every painting he has ever done. Perhaps I admire him for the exact opposite reason. I mean his anatomy of the human body is quite ideal, but "The Last Supper" painting is where I would have an argument with the guy, and quite possibly achieve my true point. The person beside Jesus is NOT Mary Magdalene, and they were NEVER married, therefor the story of the Holy Grail is complete and utter nonsense. See, da Vinci had the ability to make some acute minded people believe his assumptions rather than the true facts stated in the Bible. That part about him does not impress me. However, the titles that have been known to subject him, still many years prior to his absence do! Being tagged as a painter, sculptor, mathematician, engineer, scientist, inventor, anatomist, botanist, geologist, cartographer, and writer are enough to blow even the ever consuming human mind of a modern day genius! Lets sink into a brief account of what is taken place within the Early Middle Ages, or the Dark Ages as some might be more familiar with. And what an interesting history that particular time beholds! Vikings, Goths, Slavs, Angles, just to name a few. Many of these movements are practiced even today, in modern day society, and guess what? Yes! They were influenced by the Dark Ages. Many of which I frown upon, but it does take all kinds to make up what in a couple hundred years will be known as "history". The Sistine Chapel. No, I am not particularly interested in it because the Pope resides there. You will have to turn your head slightly to the heavens to find what captures my attention. Do you see all of those drawings, those paintings? Could you do such fine art soo brilliantly? Me neither. Its the work of Michelangelo, his crowning achievement. This piece of art which covers a vast part of the ceiling is known as "The Last Judgement", and yes, it gives me goosebumps as well. Fantastic readers of my blog, this is only a diminutive fraction of what there is to be discovered in breath taking, mind blowing, and history infested Europe. But! Let me warn you, I hear the plain tickets are quite expensive, the crime rates are excessively high, and Spain has the most heaven shooting rate of suicide. Either way, we can hire a body guard, and start somewhat of a "Europe Fund". :) Also I would like you to know I've almost mastered my Italian! Ciao! Come Stai? Although, around here, Europe is a good as a couple hundred light years away, but a girl can always dream, can't she? So, help me out here, state your opinion on my blog, and let me know where you would go if you ever had the chance! Until next time....Arrivederci!!