Deer Path Speech: Fond Memories, New Door Opens

Hello, I’m Brian Doherty, and I’m honored to be speaking on behalf of the Maroon team this evening.

Today marks the end of a great chapter of our teenage lives. So first of all, I would like to congratulate all of my peers who are graduating with me today. While many of us have known each other since kindergarten, some of us have just gotten to know each other these past two years. But in either case, the friendships we’ve made are meaningful and will last for years to come.

I have many great memories dating all the way back to . To jog my memory a bit, I looked through all of my old years books, and something stood out to me: all of the familiar and friendly faces that guided me through the beginning of my education. These were the teachers that helped establish a solid foundation for the rest of my years in school. They taught us how to read, master math facts, to spell and use proper grammar, and the history of our country.

We were all so carefree back then, and things like going outside for recess with all of our best friends became highlights of our day. We got to do fun things like watch baby chicks hatch from eggs, and see tadpoles turn into frogs. These things made being a student at Cherokee really special, and I will never forget my experiences there. But the elementary days flew by, and next thing I knew I was at .

I was a deer in headlights my first couple of days. Everything seemed bigger: the hallways, the classrooms, the cafeteria. And above all, our grade was now three times bigger. But eventually I settled in and everything became a routine. Fifth and sixth grade flashed before my eyes, and soon I was in seventh grade, on the Maroon team. Our team was unique because we only had two teachers, Ms. Schneider and Mrs. Woods, along with having significantly fewer students.

At first, I thought it would be too small, but instead, I ended up loving it. Since we were such a small team, we got to do lots of special things like go to to celebrate the holidays, go uptown at the end of the year, and I got to know all the kids on my team really well. We had a fun time touring the city of Chicago, riding in second period and got to go to the beach at the end of the year.

Also, my teachers were great, especially with the additions of Mr. Monty-G (Mr. Montgomery) and Mrs. Bolgrien this year in eighth grade. My teachers were, in my opinion, the best teachers. Ms. Schneider, who always had a smile on her face, wasn’t afraid to playfully poke at other students, and overall brightened our days. Mrs. Woods made sure the work got done, while allowing us to have fun at the same time, and ultimately prepared us for high school.

And Mr. Monty-G always had some kind of story funny to tell, whether it was him “dying” after being stung by a bee, or his wife bailing on him during a shark attack. I’m pretty sure Mrs. Bolgrien was never able to be mad at our class. She found a way to calm the class down in a nice way, without raising her voice, or rolling her eyes.

And finally, Mr. J. He was my homeroom teacher for seventh and eighth grade. I loved my homeroom, because many of my best friends were in there with me. We always shared some great laughs, sometimes from Mr. J’s sarcasm, sometimes from the inside jokes we came up with throughout the years. I have a lot of great memories from the Maroon team; along with having some of the best teachers I’ve ever had, so I couldn’t be happier with the team I was on.

I would like to thank all the teachers and administrators at DPM for helping us in countless ways throughout our middle school years. Now that our last day as a Deer Path student is upon us, a significant part of our life is concluding. But also, a new door is opening: next year we will all be in high school, and I’m sure that all of us will go on to do great things.

Finally, I would like to thank all the parents here. Every single student here knows that they wouldn’t have been able to get here without the help and love that our parents have shown us through the ups and the downs, the good times and the bad. Without our parents, none of us would be here tonight.

So thank you, and once again congratulations to the Deer Path class of 2012!

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