This is a party that acknowledges our maturity, not only as students, but also as young adults, for you have shown us that our world is larger than the view from our backyard. This is a party that acknowledges our strengths are worth cultivating, because you have shown us that we have the ability to better ourselves and continue learning when it seems everyone else has stopped. This is a party that acknowledges we have the power to achieve what we desire, for you have pushed us farther than we have wanted to push ourselves. This is a party that acknowledges the hardships and hurdles we have overcome, or haven't overcome, for you have shown us that it is the failures in addition to the triumphs that shape who we are.

And we thank you. For it is you that has allowed us to understand that we are far from the perfect beings we assume ourselves to be. It is you who has granted us a well of knowledge that otherwise we would've known or cared nothing about. And we thank you for the unnecessary individual attention you have given each of us.

Because without you, there would be no success, so this is a party that celebrates teachers who have changed one class' view of education and the meaning of commitment when the hurdles stretch higher than what we think we can jump.

Thanks.