My Mom's valedictorian speech

Memories. They come so unexpectedly. They seem to hit us at the oddest moments. As Jean Grasso describes it, " a memory is but a dream, too intangable to hold---like a snowflake that has glistened and sparkled, floating gently through the air---only to melt into ice cold water in the palm of your hand leaving no hint of past lacy-whiteness."
But we must not let memories or the desolate ticking of a clock put chains on our experiences; rather we must strike out anew with our learning based on memories, on past experiences. These experiences can work for us, opening wide the door of the future. Charles Kingsley emphasized the importance of doing doing as contrasted with mere dreaming, in his well-known lines: "Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long, and so make life,death, and the vast forever, one grand sweet song."
Our future tasks are many. If man is to survive, he must be prepared to make changes in his way of life. By our deeds perhaps we can help bring about constructive changes in our society, such as those needed in our ecological, sociological, economic, and political systems. We dream of a world made a little better by what we hope will be our noble deeds.
So we will all remember and shed a tear or two and shake a fist at the sky for whatever it is that melts snowflakes, but let us remember, too; it is not time that changes but we who change, both ourselves and those things about us. We are alive today, ready to meet the challanges of tomorrow armed with memories of the past. OUR DAY HAS COME!!!!!


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