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<p>
Good evening Reverend Father Petrie, Superintendent of Education, Mrs. Sandra Pizzutti, members of the Board of
Trustees, members of administration, teachers, family, friends and most importantly the graduating class of 2016.
WELCOME! It is an honour to have been given the opportunity to speak on your behalf tonight as we reflect on our
time together and eagerly await the next great chapter of our lives.
</p>
<p>
Nearly four years ago, I sat out in the audience as I watched the commencement speech at my sister’s graduation. The
valedictorian spoke about something foreign to most of us at that time, being young kids with little life
experience: failure. I had a very tough time identifying with the speech, knowing only the typical failures that
children experience: having your recess taken away, losing a sports game, having a first love reject an offering of
animal crackers. I had not yet learned how to fail spectacularly.
</p>
<p>
That is, until one home football game against Cardinal Newman last fall. The player opposite me on Newman’s
defensive line was monstrously huge, and I had gotten it in my head that I could not beat him. As a result of this,
I blew one of the very first snaps of the game. My one job was to start a play properly, and I failed. I could not
shake the feeling of being a disappointment to the hundreds of braves watching, my coaches, and my teammates so I
continued to fail throughout the first half. First snap of the second half comes, I tell myself “It’s a new half,
it’s a new game”; I snap the ball and miss my target by a mile. I was beginning to give up as I got into the huddle.
But then, an unlikely teammate, someone who I wasn’t particularly close with, grabbed my helmet by the mask and
brought it close to his. He looked at me and said “Don’t think. You’ve been doing this all season, you’ve got this.”
I attribute one of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned to that moment of comradery, and it’s the best story I can
share with you all tonight to capture what it means to be a brave.
</p>
<p>
Our school motto is Anima, Mens, Corpus. Translated from Latin it means Soul, Mind, and Body. Our soul is at the
very core of our being. We nurture it with the Word of God and it becomes the fundamental cause for our actions. No
great deed has ever been accomplished by someone without soul, someone without the passion to perfect their craft.
Instead, the true gifts to humanity were given by people who refused to accept defeat because they believed in
themselves and they believed in their cause with the entirety of their soul. To be a brave means to pour your soul
into everything you can, and to fight tirelessly against “good enough”.
Despite your best efforts, failure is inevitable. That’s why we develop our minds. Everyone has been in that math
class where they’ve racked their brains and asked themselves whether they’ll actually ever use the quadratic formula
in real life. We sat in History class wondering whether we’d ever need to recite a particular date, or if we’d ever
really need to conjugate a verb in French. We’ve all asked ourselves in English when we’ll ever need to interpret
Shakespeare, “To care or not to care? That is a better question”. The secret our teachers never revealed to us,
however, is that the learning process was never ONLY about the information. Sure, that’s important to know too but
education’s main goal is to teach us how to learn, to develop our mind and thereby empower us to make innovative
contributions to society. Learning something challenging sharpens our ability to persevere, to struggle with a
concept that we eventually master becomes second nature to us. This perseverance will be essential to us in failure.
Sometimes, we may find that our grit isn’t enough on its own, that our one mind can’t solve a problem or prevent
failure. This is when the gift of a Catholic education reveals itself. You have had, and always will have,
classmates who you’ve grown with to offer you the combined power of their mind so that you can face a problem
together. At Brebeuf, we are lucky because we are surrounded by individuals who will lift your head in your moment
of failure and encourage you to stop thinking about the obstacles in your path, and do what you know you can do. To
be a brave is to empower your mind and the minds of those surrounding you.
</p>
<p>
The final aspect of our school motto is our body. If you were paying attention to the many speeches I’ve made this
year, which you likely weren’t and I don’t blame you, you might have noticed that they all ended in “Go, Braves Go!”
And indeed, we have gone, and our bodies took us there. We have ran those grueling mile runs together, danced those
nights away at semi’s and prom’s, we have battled our hearts out at sport matches while our peers tested exactly how
loud their lungs would permit them to chant “SJB WHAT?”. We’ve organized and attended fundraisers that put into
practice our Catholic principles of helping others. We went to class after class after class, except for those times
we had spontaneous dentist appointments, thanks for covering for us parents. Wherever we went, our bodies took us
there. Now they are done taking us to high school events, so the only suitable path for our brave bodies to take us
forward to the limits of our imagination. To be a brave is to have gone, braves, gone and to never stop going.
</p>
<p>
We could not have gone anywhere, however, without the incredible support we’ve had from the people in this room. Our
principal, Mr. Mayers, thank you for providing inspiring leadership that captivated the spirit of our school motto.
Thank you to our vice principals, who guided us to grow up to be graduates that the staff of SJB could be proud of,
and for keeping us on track when we forgot that a Leaf’s sweater was not uniform, and why would you want to wear
that thing anyway? Thank you to our teachers who taught us daily lessons in more ways than one, and for showing us
that even the most difficult problems can be broken down into parts that anyone, anyone can manage. Thank you to the
entire staff of St. Jean de Brebeuf for suffering through close to 7 hours of unairconditioned heat every day so
that you could impact our lives. Most importantly, thank you to our families. Thank you to our parents who loved us
unconditionally and supported us, you were there for us every step of the way. Thank you to our family members who
offered us compassionate understanding and thoughtful guidance. To everyone in this room tonight, thank you for
demanding excellence of us, please never stop.
</p>
<p>
Earlier today, our graduates were gathered together for a graduation mass. At the mass, pamphlets were given to the
graduates. Some of you may have taken one as a keepsake, most of you turned it into a paper airplane. Regardless,
these pamphlets were similar to the programs you have tonight, aside from the fact that they had a beautiful cover
design proudly drawn by our own Grace Babin. When I asked Grace to compose an art piece for these pamphlets, the
only instruction I gave was to draw something that represented our graduating class.
</p>
<p>
Grace drew lions. Now I’m not planning on <span style="font-style: italic;">lion</span> to you, I was confused at first as to how lions represented our
graduating class. The more I reflected, the clearer the matter became.
</p>
<p>
Lions are incomprehensibly strong. In our short time on this planet, we have faced toil, pain, heartbreak, let down,
failure and doubt. To be a lion is to not let these symptoms of the human condition break us down. To be a lion is
to be fierce when you are afraid, to stand firm when everyone else demands you move, and to give your loudest roar
in the face of defeat.
</p>
<p>
Lions are magnificent. Because each of us, made in the image and likeness of God, each and every one of us is an
incredibly beautiful, special person. Sometimes we may feel like we aren’t, when the hunters of the world try to
bring us down, but when those times come I urge you to remember that when a lion walks into the room, it always turn
heads.
</p>
<p>
Finally, hungry lions don’t stay hungry for long. Graduates of 2016, you are talented, passionate, and ambitious.
Channel that ambition, stay hungry. Actively pursue your wildest dreams and let your influence change the world.
Thank you all, and as always: Go, Braves Go!
</p>
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