22 Oct 2015
Following are the speeches our 2015 School Captains, Jayde Hill and Connor Hoban, gave at the Year 12 final Assembly. As you read their words they are written with humour but also with appreciation for their time spent at Nambucca Heads High School. We wish them and all Year 12 students all the best for their future.
Jayde Hill:
Good Morning Mr McKinney, Ms Marshall, teachers, overly emotional parents, students and Graduating Class of 2015. Today I am here to reflect upon the past years here at Nambucca Heads High, predict our outstanding bright futures, and hopefully bring you all to tears.
I'd like to start by saying this is a HUGE, HUGE honor for you all to be here listening to Connor and I, what a treat for you all!
I should let you know that I'm not going to feed you with just your typical Graduating speech, you know when I refer to the traditional commencement of my speech with "As I look out here I see future pioneers of technology, nuclear physicists and brain surgeons"............Don't get your hopes up! No No it's cruel to give you such high hopes, lets face it we're all going to be broke students living off two minute noodles for the next four years so get use to it.
Having high school come to an end is a bit surreal, as it accurately and concisely ends what has been for most of us thirteen years of education, and for some fourteen.........some being me......not all in our Year had to repeat Kindergarten............hey, fingerpainting and puzzles were hard.
Throughout these years we have formed special bonds with the physical school, the teaching staff, and the students around us. Admittedly when I began writing this speech, it was difficult to encapsulate what Nambucca Heads High meant to me, apart from music classes and entertaining Gilbo (Mr Gilbert) everyday. If I had to explain what high school was like for me I would just have to say that it was the most fun that I have ever had and it has allowed me to capture so many of my dreams and goals already. To me high school was my first step toward growing up it's where I was actually faced with adult like decisions. However, it was also the time for me to make my mistakes, it was where I grew together with my friends. Although, what impacted me the most was that with the incredible help from the teaching staff I was prepared for what was about to come in the future.
All of you here are such individual people with your own ideas, values, talents and skills, For some academics was a skill that shone for them, for others it may have been sports, debating or showing their creative flare, but one of the more impressive and individual talents that has been developed over the past six years is the ability to 'dunk' on every low hanging ceiling, doorway or student throughout the school.
Now as you can gather we've had a lot of high's throughout the years but that doesn't mean there hasn't been some lows. What goes up must come down (I aced Year 9 Physics if you can't tell). Some of these lows being Gilbo leaving us to go to another school, Moree, really? Formng friendships with students and them departing before the HSC, Gilbo returning back to our school and lastly the most traumatic experience of not only our year but a tragic event for us all, in December 2014 we lost an important, valuable and well loved member of our school..........we lost the chocolate brownies from the canteen. After many weeks of mourning, sorrow and therapy we managed to overcome this hurdle and finish Year 12. And here we are today, we made it!
I remember like it was just yesterday Connor and myself being asked to present a speech to the graduating Year 12 last year, we were tinged with jealousy and envy because they had finished and we not only hadn't finished but we hadn't even started Year 12! So to Year 11, please cherish your time, don't waste your opportunities and remember the teachers are here to help you, because before you know it you'll be up here and we will just be last years memory because our spot will eventually be replaced by you guys and then you will be replaced by the next year's Year 12 and the school cycle continues and then before a blink of an eye, Year 7 you will be up here.
Each year the graduating class are always told they will leave big shoes to fill and each year the shoes have always managed to be filled! But who fills the shoes for Nambucca Heads High School for us? For some they may go to university, some may get a job and others may travel, but at the end of the day nothing will replace our time at Nambucca Heads High School. Lets face it Nambucca High staff are students are irreplaceable.
Now to end, you will face obstacles and you will face challenges during your journey of life, remember obstacles are only those frightful things that you see when you take your eyes off the goal. Always remember that life without struggle is life without success. So go out and create tomorrow and remember once a pelican always a pelican.
Connor Hoban:
"Dearly Beloved,
Today we are gathered here today, to witness the separation of Year 12 from the ultimate support group, and the ultimate distraction.
Although our union of holy matrimony, and government mandated schooling, has come to an end, we will look back on our memories in sickness and in health through uni, work and tafe.
Although we complain now about the countless hours of pretending to study, I dare say some of us will miss being roused on my Mr Horan, or our morning pep talks from Mr Hocking, the "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" speech from Ms Dennis, (who thanks to me, has perfected said speech), or sitting amazed at the organisational skills of Ms Patu's colour coding.
I would like to thank all teachers, who are too many to name, and who's impact is too great to understand, to the years who went before, our role models who will never hear this, but have our thanks none the less.
To my fellow Year 12, I may have the loudest voice, but the people sitting here speak volumes more than I ever could, each one has impacted the others and been impacted by those around them, and there isn't a person here today who shouldn't be proud of themselves.
To those sitting here today, just understand that school, as Mr McKinney says week in and week out, is exactly what you make of it. I say make memories and make friends, dress up, give speeches, play chess, annoy your favourite teacher, play handball, don't allow the dogma of your peers stop you from enjoying your time here, but make sure when you finish school, you can pick what you want to do, and not have to settle for it.
I'd like to give an extra big thank you to Ms Patu and Mr Hocking who have been with us from the beginning, they have both worked tirelessly to keep this train on the tracks, and even when it did derail they were always there to help put things back together,
And we can't forget ‘Le Grande Fromage' Mr McKinney, although he may not have the extraordinary public speaking skills of Mr Humphries, or the on point goatee of Mr Vernon, he has positive force on a rowdy bunch of Year 12s, and finally taught me the lesson that you can't debate your way out of everything.
To conclude my final speech, as captain of NHHS, in the words of Taylor swift, ‘we are, never ever ever, getting back together'."