Vegreville Composite High School Tribute to Parents

Katie Zuk - Vegreville Composite High School

Submitted

Hello Parents and fellow graduates, As we all know parents play an important role in our development; caring for and nurturing us, guiding and protecting us, teaching us valuable life lessons and ultimately shaping us into the young adults we are today.

While growing up, I am certain we take most of these things unintentionally for granted, asking why you are always in our business or telling you to shut our bedroom door on your way out. Having our parents beside us to celebrate our first big milestone will always be a blessing as we begin our journey into adulthood.

We started this journey 13 years ago when you sent us on our first day of kindergarten, for some there may have been tears but understandable there may have been some relief that you could finally have a little peace and quiet.

Every day you would ensure we were up in time for school, breakfast ready, clothes set out, and lunch packed. You never batted an eye when we told you the night before that we needed cupcakes made for the whole class for a birthday celebration or a holiday, even if that meant staying up the whole night. We could count on you to be there for us at the end of the day to share everything we learned that day or who we played with at recess.

Then middle school began and that’s where the hard stuff began. This may be where some had more extracurricular activities than time in the day but you still drove us around even after a long day at work. Now we started to want more freedom and go out with friends but got pummeled by questions like “Who’s going to be there?” “Where is this happening?” “Are the parents home?” although it was annoying and embarrassing we understood that you were just trying to keep us safe.

You dealt with all of our hormones and breakdowns when they were at their worst, which I know must not have been easy.

Then high school hit and all the worries and stresses doubled, this is when we thought we needed you the least, having our license feeling like we had it all figured out until we realized that we actually had nothing figured out and we needed you now more than ever.

Our workload doubled and now we had the stresses of the social aspect while balancing our studies, you often tried to help us thinking you took the same course 30 some years ago, but you soon realized that it’s not the same anymore, but you still tried you best to help us even googling formulas you didn’t even know existed or trying to teach us the old fashioned way.

What I am trying to say is that there will never be a way in which we could thank you for everything you’ve done for us, and will continue to do for us, but on behalf of my fellow graduates and I, we would like to say thank you to our parents for being there for us for our first 18 years, and thank you for being willing to be there for our future. We love you.”