Welcome to Paul's Blog
This is where I put down my thoughts occasionally.
CVMS Graduation
As expected, it is rushed.
Also this post was supposed to be published yesterday, which is 22 minutes before at the time of this writing.
Before grad
I am a little bit nervous, but I don't have a special feeling like last year because it wasn't too long since I had one.
After grad
I have a lot to say! I first got there and I saw some people in fancy clothes. I found Avenue Banquet and went inside. I saw my peers and teachers all dressed up on fancy clothes, and talking. I noticed boys were easy to see who they were, but girls were harder to see who is who as they changed many things about their appearance. Everyone was gorgeous. There was a popcorn machine and the cotton candy machine. Everyone was lining up. I lined up for a while but decided against it because the line was way too long.
It was time to go in after. We lined up in alpha order by class and went inside the hall as practised; class by class. There were so many people with their cameras pointing at us! We sat and eventually all the graduates came in. The masters of the ceremonies began the ceremony. The superintendent of LN12 Family of Schools (One that our school has in), who was Linda Curtis, came and gave a speech. Then it was time for diplomas. Our class rose up and lined up beside the stage, and one by one, we received our diplomas. Each SAG's teacher came up and called out everyone's names, and our vice principal, Krisha Kumar, and our SAG's teacher hand shaked with everyone and handed out fake diplomas. Mr. Gonos down and beside the stages would give out real diplomas. They did it for all the graduates. A.Li complained that the ceremony was too long, and I agree. He counted down the number of classes left to go after each class was done.
After handing out diplomas, the valedictorian, L.M. stepped up and gave a speech. I still think N.A. from our class should have gave the speech but she went 30 seconds overtime, which placed her third. Had she didn't do that she would've been in first place. L.M.'s speech wasn't particularly interesting, it went through all the events of what happened in CVMS.
After the valedictorian gave her speech, it was time for awards. My heart leapt up. The first was David MacKay Award, and Mr. Gonos was responsible for presenting it. He came on stage and talked about how David MacKay was a previous teacher at CVMS and how he was a great teacher in many subjects, but especially in math and science. Mr. Gonos told us that he was hired to replace Mr. MacKay when he died to another school. In memory of Mr. MacKay, the David MacKay Memorial Award was made to award students that are excellent in math and science. Mr. Gonos talked about how the receipient scored top in the school in Langrange and Gauss Math Contest (After this I was somewhat sure I was going to receive the prize, and I became more nervous), how they applied their knowledge in science, how they were the leader in the robotics club, finally how they got into the "prestigious" MaCS program (After this I was really really sure that I was going to receive the prize, I somehow became less nervous). Then he announced that they were from 8A and called me up. I stood up and went out. I asked Mr. Isaacs whether I should go out or not by gesture and he pointed at the stage in response. I got up and received the award. Mr. Gonos told me to remember that he told me that he had something to give to me today, yesterday, and the award was the thing! (Yesterday when I gave Mr. Gonos my card of gratitude, he told me that he has something to give to me tomorrow) I looked at the audience and there was so many people, and they were all looking at me! I was a bit nervous, but not as nervous as I did a year ago when Mrs. Middleton presented the Gauss contest certificate to me and gave a speech in front of the entire school. I came back down stage and back to my seat.
Next was the citizenship award. Many students were awarded including me. Many students were from 8A-C, however in 8D-E, combined only had 4~5 people. Which A.Li commented that it is sad, and I agree again. The school had the Future Ace Award and the Principal's Award and that concluded our ceremony.
We were all chased out of the hall and into the front foyer. There wasn't much room for all the students, let alone both the students and the parents. I took pictures with other friends, took pictures with them and my teachers, and chatted with one another, until after 30 minutes the hall was ready again.
When we entered there were round tables set up. I went to one of the tables with some of my friends. We sat and chatted until the staff at the Avenue Banquet gave us salads. The salad was great. We finished it quickly and waited for the next dish. We predicted that the salad was the appetizer and there would be the main dish and the dessert. We were close with the guess, but the main dish took some time to appear. We got the sauce for the main dish earlier, but it somehow disappeared. The dish was fries and chicken strip. Some vegetarians got vegetarian burgers instead of the chicken strip. The fries was good. The chicken strips were okay. Some of us at the table waited for the sauce. We asked for the sauce three times before the staffs brought it to us. The main dish was overall good. I went back to the foyer to get the cotton candy without waiting for it for a long time. People started to dance at the open space betside where the tables were. But many people just stayed at their tables. The bar opened up and people went to get some drinks. There was one specific drink that was very popular. It had this red gradient color, and my friends told each other that it was whisky, and was an alcoholic beverage. I'm not too sure, but a bit positive that they were joking. I went to get one, I asked the bartender why everyone getting the drink? He said it was a great question and told me to ask others. Then I asked him if I can get the drink, and he said yes. However didn't give me the drink. Someone else then whispered to me to say please, and I then repeated the phrase but with the magic word. Then he gave me the drink. The drink was sweet, not but too sweet. It was perfect. It was fizzy too. They soon began giving out ice cream. I got it on my table and went to get a group photo. Some other groups of friends just cut the line and stepped in, but soon we were able to take our own photo, but since there were so many, my face wasn't shown for 2 out of 4 photos. When I returned the tables were cleaned, my ice cream was gone. The party was shutting down. Some people were still dancing. The YMCA song came up. Me and M.C. went to the dancing area and did three mediocre YMCA pose and stopped because people were leaving. I stayed at the foyer for quite a while. I wanted to say goodbye to my teacher and some other people, but they were gone. Some other people stayed. After a while I went out and said farewell to Matthew Chen, and started to leave until I saw the lineup to get free ice cream. A woman was handing out tickets to get free ice cream from an ice cream truck parked beside the Avenue Banquet. I got a ticket and lined up for a very long time. In that timeframe though, A.T. said that I probably just paid to get my awards (Which came to a total of 6 awards from yesterday and today). Which was very rude. I chose not to reply and I believe that was the right decision. I got a sundae and left.
My mom and I went to the Cheesecake Factory at the Yorkdale Mall. The restraurant however, didn't meet our expectations from seeing the lineup. There wasn't much lineup for us, as we only had to wait 10 minutes. The food was mediocre compared to the attention it was receiving. We walked around the mall after that and my mom took some photos of me. I saw some other people wearing fancy clothes as I was. I think they were graduating as well. Then it was time to come home.
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Also we had a principal who was new at the school at the beginning of the year, but stopped appearing at the school two or three months ago. She was hated by all the students. I was just neutral with her. We had two acting principals during the timeframe, and until the end of the school year she never appeared. Not at the school. Not at the graduation. Maybe she appeared at school today. I wasn't there because I went straight to grad from home. My mom said that she probably had some conflict with parents and chose to cause disadvantage to the students, for example, shortening the grad trip to just a day from 3 days overnight. When I came back home, there was an email in my TDSB Mail inbox from Linda Curtis, and it said that Mrs. Lerner was retiring, and was getting replaced by someone else. Just like that. No farewell. No, nothing. My mom predicted that she was actually being fired. I agree.
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The CVMS grad was fun and it would be memorable. However, I wish that it would have been in the evening (The party was from 12:30 to 4:30), and the party was way too short (2 to 4). However the party was good and what else do we really need for the graduation?
I will miss all the CVMS graduates of 2019, knowing that I'll never meet most of them again. Hope I bump into them somehow later in life!
This post will be updated with further thoughts and memories.
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Update #1
I remember a year ago, thinking that a graduation after just a year of school is meaningless, as I wouldn't know anybody. I was proven wrong. So many things happened in this 9 months that I had with people in CVMS. This goes to prove that there is always someone for everyone as long as people look and try. This year I have learned that I always have to be myself, and not be someone else. A valueable lesson which may impact the times to come at Mackenzie. I'm grateful for everything in CVMS from Viperbots to my teachers, to my friends and to the last amazing celebration we had together as Vipers. I will really cherish the lessons and the memories earned. Just few months ago, I was eagerly waiting for school to end, but now I'm nostagic of the memories. I really don't understand my past self, and this shows how people change over time as they mature. This is all I have now and I'll create further updates soon.