Valedictorian Speech

Mother Nature’s Torn Dress

Great Wolf Lodge

The phone rang wildly.
"Hey, my family is planning on going to Great Wolf Lodge. Wanna go together?" Arissa asked.
"Great Wolf Lodge? ... "

" ... "

Google ... great wolf lodge ... Virtual Tour. An animation popped up and showed ginormous water slides twisting in every direction with crystal pools under them. One slide blasts down a long drop, then spins round and round a colourful bowl before dropping into another dark, black hole. A swirling water roller coaster pulls slowly up, then suddenly plunges downwards at an unbelievable speed. The massive building has the water park connected with the suites like a castle channeling out to the chambers. An overnight stay is required. Wolf Den, KidKamp, KidCabin, 2 floored suites, hot tub suites, anything that can be dreamt up is there. With an arcade, a stuffing station, and a spa, what is missing?

A decision was finally made. The two families would go together, but this time, the children will do all the planning. The parents only had to pay. Arissa was in charge of what to bring, my sister was in charge of the activities, and I was in charge of finding a suite. What should Arissa's little brother, Felix, do? He's only 3. Maybe he can arrange the diapers?



Finding a suite seemed like a simple task. All there was to do is to pick a nice suite that we all preferred. Though soon enough, there was a lot of thinking work to do. Since 2 families were going, should we share a suite or buy 2 separate ones? If we bought 2 different suites, it would be almost double the price, but if we shared one, it'll be a single cost and it would be more fun. Why pay more if there's a chance to pay less? Furthermore, if we shared a suite, it will be easier than to meet up someplace. Be that as it may, if 2 families shared a suite, we'd lose our privacy. Out of all the different suites on the advertisement, there must be some with more walls to divide the beds. Then, there was school. It probably was more expensive on the weekends when everyone is available to go and therefore making weekdays cheaper. But we didn't want to miss school. Long weekends and holidays didn't help either. Yes, it was more convenient, but the prices went up. With all this in mind, it didn't seem so easy anymore.

Everyday after school, I'd be on the computer staring intently at the screen and hoping that something will show up. During those days, one can almost always hear:
"Shirley! Diner is ready"
 "Can you get off the computer? I need to check something"
"Computer again???"
" ... "
It would usually take me 5 minutes to respond. During dinner, it would always be the topic I'd talk about, and after dinner, the internet would be on again.

One day, there was a call. It was Arissa. After we hung up, I was sweating and there were butterflies in my stomach. She had already finished her checklist and was e-mailing it to me at that instant. I had only started my task! Arissa had offered to help, but I wanted to do it all by myself.

Rien, rien, rien! Nothing showed up, and a few weeks later, my sister had almost finished planning the activities. Hope was just a thin strand of string, threatening to snap at any moment. Then, I remembered. The suite with 2 floors! My family can sleep on one floor and Arissa's on the other. Parfait! With another hurdle passed, everything seemed easier. Finding a date wasn't so bad. The following 2 weeks had a cheap weekend price and my heart pounded. I waited impatiently for my mom to come home to pay. Finally she came and was rushed to the computer. ...

When I refreshed the screen, the date was unavailable. Someone already bought it! Sighing, I continued to flip through their virtual calendar. There was another date 2 months later, but it wasn't as cheap and it seemed like such a long wait. Yet my mom still bought it, seeing how there was no other choice.

...
...
Finally we arrived at Great Wolf Lodge. After checking in, my sister, Arissa and I dashed into the change rooms while our parents continued to chat. We quickly changed into our swimsuits and dived into the pool.
My dad finally caught up to us while we were waiting in line for a slide.
"Lunchtime guys. Aren't you hungry?"
But we weren't.
Hours later of play, we went to our suite. It looked very grand, better than the image on their website. We fell into bed at 10:30, dreaming of tomorrow.

Announcing at the Recital

One sunny Saturday afternoon, Mrs. J, my next door neighbor who is also the principal of my music school, asked me to announce at an upcoming recital. "Yes" instantly flew out of my lips preventing my brain from protesting.

Hopefully, everything would be perfect. My family supported me and constantly aided me practicing walking up and down the stage, bowing and my posture. However, something vital was missing. All of my outfits were dull and not formal enough so on Wednesday, I proposed to go shopping. We went to Holister and Aeropostal but none of the dresses were appealing to me. There were many nice dresses at Forever 21 and Le Château but they were not made for my age and most of them were just summer dresses. Sighing, we went home. The following day, we searched in more stores like Zara, Tommy Hilfiger, Mexx, Aritzia, Bench, American Eagle and Guess. Still, we were disappointed. On the day before the recital, we went into H&M with no hope. My eyes quickly scanned the shelves and they stopped at the perfect dress. It was an ankle long white dress with black stripes and a flower on the left sleeve. I knew that it was made for me.

Finally, the day of the recital arrived. I urged my family to go and after fifteen minutes, we were at the theatre. Although we went extra early, there were still no parking spaces.
"Um...", my father asked,"When does the recital begin?"
"1:30", I replied.
My father looked at the clock. It read 12:30. Everyone began shouting at me.
"It is only 12:30!" they protested.

In the theatre, Mrs. J called me up and handed me the script.
"Smile dear", she whispered in my ear.
Smile, I told myself.

Talking was always hard for me. In kindergarten, my voice seemed to be caught in my throat whenever a teacher spoke to me. Try as they may, they just could not get a sound from me so they used one of my very few friends to communicate with me.

Things progressed a little. We began doing presentations in Grade 2, however, my voice would just disappear and my heart would race whenever my classmates sat before me. To go around that problem, my teachers had private presentations from me. Relieved that my audience shrunk dramatically, I incorporated hand gestures and gave fleeting looks at my teachers.

In grade 4, I moved to a new school. There were only two of my former classmates and they were both boys. Desperate to have new friends, I began trying to talk to my new classmates. They already had friends from their previous schools and they never paid much attention to me, it took my every nerve to say "Hello" but no one heard. One day, after taking several deep breaths, I walked up to one of my classmates, Mona, and asked if I could join their game. Surprisingly, it felt nice talking to another person and it wasn't as that hard or intimidating. We soon became friends and seeing that talking wasn't all that horrifying, I began talking and playing with my new classmates and my web of friends grew larger and larger. Of course, I had to make new friends as everyone needs someone to communicate with and at recess and lunch it became very boring sitting on a rock watching other people play. Excited that I had made new friends, I moved on to my presentations and how to fix them. Although, my presentations would not be as nearly as well as my classmates, it was worth a go.

My presentations were yelled out and after hundreds of self-made reminders, my pace slowed down. Every time my name was called to present, I plastered a smile onto my face and forced my eyes upwards to meet the eyes of the audience. Still, my smile would fade and my eyes constantly found a spot on the ground to stare at. I began writing "Smile" and "Look at the audience" on my cue cards and it became less stressful and more natural for me to talk to a crowd.

In Grade 7, my school introduced a program called "Peer Tutoring" where people help others that are having troubles at school. After spotting the announcement on the bulletin board on the first week of school, I signed up and when my mom received the letter that stated that the school had accepted me, her jaw dropped. The first time went badly. It was hard to look into my tutees' eyes and once again, my voice was barely a murmur. These people did not act like any of my friends and their personalities ranged from shy to rude. They had very short attention spans and were only keen on being dismissed and talking to their friends. I had no idea how to work with them at first but after many tries of Peer Tutoring, it became easier.

In class, my hand shot up voluntarily to answer my teachers' questions. In fact, they have stopped calling on me. Now knowing how to deal all different types of people, teachers did not seem so frightening. In debates we have in class, I constantly presented the argument and counter arguments that my team relied on me the most.

Back on stage, I pulled down the microphone and cleared my throat.

"Welcome", I said, my voice ringing around in the theatre. 

It was the first time I heard my voice though the mic and it was clear, concise and confident.

"Thank you", Mrs. J said as the audience broke into an applause after the last performance. Her eyes were directed at me and she smiled.

 Thank you Mrs. J for giving me this chance, I thought in my head.

Ma Sœur

Ma sœur fait plus d’une mètre d’haut.
Le lundi, elle fait du chocolat chaud.
Le mardi, elle fait une étoile belle.
Le mercredi, elle fait du ballet.
Le jeudi, elle fait son projet.
Le vendredi, elle fait des voyelles.
Le samedi, elle fait un cadeau.

Ma sœur mesure plus d’une mètre d’haut.
Le lundi, elle prépare du chocolat chaud.
Le mardi, elle dessine une étoile belle.
Le mercredi, elle danse du ballet.
Le jeudi, elle fini son projet.
Le vendredi, elle écrit des voyelles.
Le samedi, elle crée un cadeau.

Ma sœur fait des mélodies.
Elle fait des vaisselles le lundi.
Elle fait la lessive le mardi.
Elle fait un bateau le mercredi.
Elle fait une écharpe le jeudi.
Elle fait des sports le vendredi.
Elle fait des blagues le samedi.

Ma sœur compose des mélodies.
Elle lave des vaisselles le lundi.
Elle range la lessive le mardi.
Elle conduit un bateau le mercredi.
Elle tricote une écharpe le jeudi.
Elle joue des sports le vendredi.
Elle dit des blagues le samedi.