Senior Gabriel Mantione stands and speaks at the 2018 ODYSSEY Banquet. Mantione has been on staff for two years. Photo by Krista Shumaker
Senior Gabriel Mantione speaks at the Senior Night of reflection on May 15 in Mell Auditorium. Mantione reflected on high school, education and the future.
Most of you know me from my infamous position as the voice of the announcements until it was abruptly cut short on April 3. Others may know me from my involvement in the various clubs and athletics I take part in. And I’m sure there is still many of you who are thinking who on earth is this man speaking in front of us and why is he so good looking.
For some reason that still mystifies me, people in higher places decided to allow me an additional four minutes of the school’s time. I guess the previous 45 wasn’t enough for them. I plan on using these four minutes not to “terrorize” with music, but to talk about our future.
For the past 12 years, we have all been in school. We have been told what to learn how to learn it and why we will definitely be using it later in life. We have been denied the ability to go to the bathroom and on some occasions been told what clothes were acceptable to wear. Our lives have been heavily monitored and managed, whether it was by teachers, parents, grandparents or another guardian.
We have had detailed plans for how we should live for the past 12 years all in preparation for us to go out into the world without one. Whether you’re pursuing higher education or not, your entire life is about to change after we are handed our diploma. Whether you have been following the plans given to you or rebelling against them, you have still been given plans.
We are about to be on our own. No plans to follow and none to rebel against. We are all going to be relying on ourselves, something that many of us have never been allocated the privilege to do, and those that have, have typically had it forced onto them through unfortunate circumstances.
I’m sure many of you are fearful. I know I have had my fair share of anxiety about going forward. About going into the unknown, being alone, and having only myself to rely on. With that fear comes with the incredible high that I will be leaving high school soon.
As great as education is, high school as an institution was really just a big mistake. Forcing hundreds of teenagers to be around each other breeds the most toxic environment. Whoever thought to wrangle up the most hormonal and petty people in the world and trapping them in a building with the bare minimum amount of adult supervision truly had a screw loose.
On top of that, though, you are trying to force feed information into these kids, many of whom don’t want to learn it and are very vocal about these opinions. We are not quiet about how much we hate school. And this is not to say the teachers are doing anything wrong – far from it.
The fact that we are graduating is to show that teachers are performing miracles on the daily. The fact that the student body never once rebelled and took over the school amazes me. Because we far outnumber you it wouldn’t have even been a little hard. But we never did and I think that speaks volumes.
Humour aside the future is upon us. We are going to be taking the next step in our lives and none of us truly know what that’s going to look like. We are going to be going head-on into the unknown with only what ideologies and moral codes we have been taught previously to guide us.
It is time to leave the classroom behind. We are young adults and now is the perfect time to start acting like it.
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Malcolm X
We may be leaving high school behind. But that doesn’t mean we will be leaving education. Whether you’re going to college or not you can always be learning, and I encourage that you do. Because we are not living in the same age as our parents. Information is more accessible than ever before and that accessibility is only increasing.
For us to make it in this world we must learn as the world learns. We will progress our own minds as the world progresses. Be happy that you are graduating but make sure you are graduating high school and not education.
