St. Francis Valedictorian: Value Your Friendships
Editor’s Note: Germaine Kabutaulaka was the valedictorian of the first coed St. Francis School graduation class on May 26, 2013. The speech she gave to her class has been reprinted below.
Good evening Sister Joan of Arc, the faculty and staff of Saint Francis School, and the proud families and friends who have come from near and far to congratulate the graduating class of 2013. I would first like to give a well-deserved round of applause for my fellow classmates. Mention the class of 2013, and people may chuckle. If anyone knows our class, they know that this class of young men and women who sit before you have come a long way to graduation. If anyone knows us, they would know that it took a little more effort to get to where we are today than your average class. It took determination, patience and the utmost endurance from the faculty and staff, our parents and ourselves to be where we are right at this moment.
From our not-so humble beginnings as that rowdy class of freshmen, we have emerged to become living testaments to you and to Saint Francis School鈥檚 new chapter in history as the first coed class. We鈥檝e grown and adjusted to the changes our school has gone through, and in fact, we are this change. Despite the fact that our reputation wasn鈥檛 always the most admired, I wouldn鈥檛 ask for a better group of people to call my classmates. Our past may be a bumpy one, full of write-ups, detentions and many embarrassing moments, but I know our future will be full of great success.
You can call us unique, different, or even weird, but each of us has a gift that we have developed over these past four years that we are now ready to bestow upon the world. A commendable thing about Catholic school education is that you are not only instilled with a strong academic foundation but also with other principles. I think there are three specific principles that Saint Francis School has taught us. These principles are Family Stands Together, Value Your Friendship, and God is Always There.
For the past four years, this class has spent just about half of our days with each other for six hours a day, five days a week. You can say we鈥檝e grown to become a family. We may be a kind of a dysfunctional family, but we are a family nonetheless. We鈥檝e shouted, screamed and hollered over each other and argued at lectures, bickering over the smallest things like which way we should sway first during our songfest practice-left or right-, or what days and times we should come in for our senior play practices. We鈥檝e blamed each other, helped each other get through our classes, and shared some laughs. Even though our relationship as a family was a rocky one, we pulled it through. Just like a real family who is always there when nobody else is, this class was the same. We did everything together from songfest to spirit rallies, Winterball to prom, even if some of us didn鈥檛 want to be there. Isn鈥檛 that how family is? We stayed together as a family, fell as a family but also rose as one, too. Saint Francis School and my class have instilled me with the sense and importance of this. As we go out into the real world, where our classes in college will be much bigger, we will always know what it feels like to have a family in school and to always be there for others just like we were there for each other. In the end, you love them after you part ways, miss them dearly, and you鈥檒l always know that family stands together.
Valuing friendship is another learned principle. We follow in the footsteps of Saint Francis who said 鈥淔or it is in giving that we receive.鈥 Friendship is a fun and adventurous balancing act where we must not only receive from our peers but also give. Your high school friends are the ones with whom you share all your memories. They are indestructible support systems who are always there. Laughter, unforgettable memories and embarrassing moments resound from these friendships. Your friends are there when you are rising and especially when you鈥檙e falling. Being in a small school, it is always easy see one of your buddies walking down the hallway, in the ASC or the senior courtyard. The friends we have today may not have been the friends we had four years ago, but the memories we share are priceless nonetheless. As we venture out into the real world and into the future, we each take a piece of our friends with us. We are so used to seeing each other every day that we have adopted each other鈥檚 personalities and likes such as our favorite shows, music, hobbies and inside jokes. Our friends at Saint Francis have formed us into who we are today, and as we venture out and go on our separate paths, our friends join us in spirit. Saint Francis School鈥檚 small community has truly taught us the meaning of friendship, valuing it and learning who we are as individuals through the whole process.
The third principle that we鈥檝e learned from attending this school is about God and the relationship my classmates and I have built with Him. He is always there. From our class retreats, where everyone shared their stories that allowed us to get closer, to our memorable Encounters, Saint Francis has built a foundation of faith that helped support us through thick and thin. From our happiest moments to our darkest, God has always been there, guiding us and blessing us even when we didn鈥檛 know it. He is here right now, watching over us as we embark on this journey. God was there when we took our first steps on campus, and He will continue to be there in the future. It was God who guided us on our retreats, our Encounters, our spirit rallies and songfests.
Retreats allowed us to forget about school, focus on God and strengthen our bonds with each other. For many of us, Encounter was a pinnacle moment in our high school years because the grand spirit and soul that we felt surely struck a chord in our inner beings, reverberating through each other as we came out feeling refreshed and imbued with the Holy Spirit. Encounter and other retreats allowed us to 鈥渓et go and let God,鈥 to be open to others and understanding. They taught us forgiveness, love and about finding happiness in the simple things. God gives you these obstacles in life for a reason because they are lessons that must be learned, so we must deal with them in order to better ourselves. After coming back from a retreat, we tried our best to be patient with those whom we may not get along with; we tried to forgive those who betrayed us at one point in our lives. These lessons are ones that we can use to become successful in whatever we do. God is always there for you, so no matter what troubles we are going through and will go through in the future, we must always look to Him for help and guidance.
Over these past four years, whether we鈥檝e noticed it or not, Saint Francis has quietly been building a foundation of principles to help us succeed in the future. Family Standing Together, Valuing Friendship and Trusting in God have canvassed our years here allowing us to learn about ourselves, each other and to appreciate what we have around us. Memories have been formed that will surely last a lifetime. Lessons have been learned, and experiences have been made. These principles are ones that will surely help us in the future. We may be going into a world we are hardly familiar with, but if we hold on to these principles that we鈥檝e learned, family, friendship and God, I am sure that we can conquer any obstacle in our way. Yes, our years here may have been full of many ups and downs, but that doesn鈥檛 mean our future has to be. It鈥檚 not about how many times you fall down; it鈥檚 about how many times you get back up. And, we always get back up with our exuberant spirits intact.
As valedictorian of the class of 2013, I am proud to say that I love my class dearly, each and every one of you! Remember we ARE family. Always carry that with you.
Thank you.
About the author: Germaine Kabutaulaka was the valedictorian of the first coed St. Francis School graduation class on May 26, 2013. The school, founded in 1924, began admitting boys in 2006. Kabutaulaka, who came to Hawaii 10 years ago from Fiji, delivered her speech at the Ko’olau Ballrooms. She was one of 75 graduates. Fifty-four were girls. She earned a Gates Milennium Scholarship and will attend the University of San Francisco to study biology and international relations.
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