Good evening distinguished guests, parents, teachers, staff of the Independent school, and my fellow students. It is with great pleasure that we are gathered here for the presentation of the Cambridge school certificates.

Take a deep breath my friends, switch on that time machine somewhere in your memory cells, and lets push ourselves back to the times when we first joined Independent school. Can you see it? We came to this school as boys and girls. We were a very playful and notorious batch. Every year we retained the title for being the noisiest class in the school. I think we�ve realised that the tongue weighs practically nothing, but so few people can hold it. We were lucky to have tolerant and understanding teachers. After all, anger is only one letter short of danger. These teachers not only taught us academically, but also made it a point to try and shape us into mature, respectful, young adults and today we see ourselves almost as men and women with a strong foundation in which to carry on further in life and later face the real world.

Remember one thing, God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.

Let�s not also forget the sacrifices that our parents made in order to give us the opportunity to study at this very school. We are proud to have such parents. We want to convey our heartfelt thanks to the teachers and staff of the Independent school for making learning possible in a healthy atmosphere and for making it fun and effective, and to our parents for supporting us through the years. You�ve all been great. You were the ones who held us up when we seemed to fall, you gave us strength when we seemed weak, you shone the light where we couldn�t see, whenever we lost our faith you gave it back to us, you�re the ones who saw us through, through it all.

Now, finally, today when we hold our certificates, it gives us pride and it sums up all the effort and the hard work put by us. We will now move further in life and it will soon be our turn to pass on what we have learnt, to others younger than us, and probably one day, to our own children.

I want to pass on a few words of advice to my colleagues:

- Many people will walk in and out of your lives,
but only true friends will leave footprints in your hearts.

- To handle yourself, use your head,
To handle others, use your heart.

- If someone betrays you once, it's his fault,
if he betrays you twice, it's your fault.

- Great minds discuss ideas.
Average minds discuss events.
Small minds discuss people.

- He, who loses money, loses much,
He, who loses a friend, loses more,
He, who loses faith, loses all.

- Learn from the mistakes of others.
You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

Friends, you and me....
Together we�ve formed our circle of friends...
and like a circle...
there is no beginning or end.

Friends, given the chance, would you like to be part of this school again? I don�t think I have to state the obvious.

Thank you once again to all our parents and to the teachers and staff of the Independent school.

We�re everything we are and we are where we are,
because you loved us and you cared for us.

Thank you and have a pleasant evening.