 What I'm about to say, I don't think you should call it a speech. You should call it a refreshment. Because this is all you'll get for the afternoon. I don't know if I'm nervous or if I'm gasping my belly, I'm in me vibrate. My people, let's make solution great again. We're doing good in society. I can tell you that. It's a real system of living. Trust me. And despite this, we're able to make it to graduation today. It has only been two years since we first stepped foot at South Africa, but it feels long-zined. We stand here today on the precipice of the future, our future. It's not a distant reality anymore. But it begins here. It begins today. As I gander into the audience, I sense a wave of emotions from everyone present. From the anxiety of the graduating class, to the family, friends, and loved ones. The sense of pride you should have in your accomplishments is exorbitant. Because to stay focused in this generation of so many negative influences and difficulties is no easy feat. And I kindly ask that the audience join me in a round of applause for the graduating class. Reminiscing on my first day of school here, well not here, but at the college, I can clearly remember this angelic voice shouting to me, Hello? While glancing over my shoulder, get off the railing. That was my first encounter with Saint Lucia's Prestige Navy Seals, or as you may call it, Mr. Day's Special Forces. Have you ever heard a person say that you can hear and feel the wind, but you don't know where it's coming from? Well, at SALCC, there's no wind. Just Mr. Day. Either you hear his walkie-talkie before he creeps upon you, or his voice shouting. If your wah-play ball gone to court, I think if information was left to be disseminated by the security officers, no student or faculty member would be oblivious to activities going on at school. Legend has it that Mr. Day predicted the date of elections before it was announced on DBS. But all jokes aside, without the security, the entire college would be in total calamity, and damage infrastructure to items going missing, and even fights getting way out of hand. We are greatly thankful. To the housekeeping staff, you are equally as important. Cleaning up after our messes, ensuring that the classrooms are tidy, sanitized, and work-friendly, and occasionally supplying some ice lollies. All these aspects are essential to our learning process, and we are indebted to you all. To the groundsmen who never seem to be out of work, from cutting trees and branches, to fixing footpaths and roadworks, to the daily chore of cutting grass. If you are not disturbed by a widower at least one day during the week, you are either not in class or not at school. Parents, if you want to find out if your child attended school or not, please ask. Do-do. If they don't say widower, you know the answer. Yet again, we are obligated to say thank you. To our coaches and advisors, thank you for making school more about more than just classwork. Through sports, we learn how to power on through adversity and give it our best win or lose. We learn the importance of discipline and good sportsmanship. Through other activities like participating in clubs, school plays and service projects, we learn how to work closely with others to achieve a common goal, and we add a lot of fun doing it. To our guidance counselors, thank you for listening and trying to keep us on the right track for graduation. Without your help, some of us might not be graduating today. Staff members including accountants, secretaries, librarians, IT personnel, assistants, lab techs, and student services personnel, we are ever so thankful for your part in our academic experience. To our lecturers, as the famous reggae artist, Tisla Kalanja says, Thank you for so unselfishly sharing your time, talent, and knowledge with us. Yes, we know it was your job to do it, but what you did for us went beyond the call of duty. You took the time to explain assignments, sometimes repeatedly because we were not paying attention. You allowed us to come to your office after school for extra help when you could have gone home to spend time with your family. You put in the effort to make lessons more interesting so we don't just tune out. You demanded excellence from us whether or not we wanted to give it. You set the bar high and challenged us to live up to it. We could have gotten a little extra 10% on some occasions, but we made it through nevertheless. To the government of St. Lucia, and administration of the college, thank you for taking the steps in converting SALCC to a university college with a mandate to offering degree programs in the coming years. To our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, godparents, friends, and even loved ones, thank you for supporting us in many ways that it is possible to count. You dragged us out of bed each morning as I can clearly remember my mother coming to my room shouting, Dante, where are you going to school? Oh, my father with his. Every day I go to school, but I will never take you to school. Every day I say, where are you going to school? Yet still, you made sure we were fed and clothed for school. You headed us out the door to the bus stop or drove us to school yourselves. You helped us with assignments, paid out tuition, and listened to our complaints. You commiserated over our daily dramas, but at the same time gave us enough room to work things out for ourselves. These are just a few of the many ways you supported us on our academic journey, and we are ever so grateful. Graduating class of 2016, congratulations for holding on, congratulations for being resilient, congratulations for not conforming to the negatives that continuously plague our generation, and congratulations for being able to adapt to change, even to adapting to this new graduation structure, change including being moved from LFT to have ATM classes on the cotton cemetery. Also, the movement from hospitality to the DTM's main building was unconventional to most students, but we made it work. That was the first time ever in my life. I saw Jamie get upset when he heard hospitality at RAT. I congratulate you all for not losing faith, for not allowing these challenges we've faced for the past two years to affect our learning. As they say, school years are the best years of your life. We forged friendships to last us a lifetime and made memories which we could never leave our mind. From function and service days at hospitality to practicals and workshops for the mechanics, carpenters and engineers at DTM's, spending the entire day on the computer's office admin, spending hours trying to get your account's homework to balance that business, castrating pigs on the college's farm, practicing CPR on the human-like dolls and other medical services at nursing, learning how to set up a classroom environment at Teachers College, and trying to complete K-P-S-B-As and chilling under OTW complaining about how you'll get food down the road at DAGS. We all have memories that we will cherish and hold close to our hearts. One of those memories being that of Nigel Emmanuel whose beautiful soul impacted us all. He began his journey with us, but his life was cut short by uncontrollable circumstances. I now ask for a more silent for Nigel. Nigel was living proof that life is too short to be second-guessing, to be questioning every decision, to keep asking what if. Just as Steve Jobs was the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple says, and I quote, Remembering you're going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you are something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. End of quote. Graduating class of 2016, let us promise ourselves to set goals. Let us promise ourselves to stay focused and never lose sight of our dreams. Let us promise ourselves to use all the information acquired over the two years to transform Saint Lucia and the world positively. Let us promise ourselves to stay connected to the Lord for without him we can do nothing. Remember that the great book says that through him alone can we do all things. My fellow graduates, we can spend the entire afternoon making lovely promises which we are likely to forget. But the one promise I'd like to resonate with you is the promise to continue in the pursuit of excellence. Congratulations to you all and thank you to everyone.