My High School Yearbook Page Letter

     Sitting here at a desk I have sat in practically every day this year, my brain starts to rewind back to January of 2010. It was then that my sister, Pesha Leah, was tragically taken from this world, a day that changed my life. Shortly afterwards, I lost interest in school, something I never thought would happen. In short, I was told my school would not accept me the following year. While I was at camp that summer my mother called me and said “Rabbi O moved to the States and is opening up a school in New Jersey. Do you want to go?”
       Being as I had nowhere else to go, I said, “Sure. Why not?”
      The school year started off great, but that did not last long. To be honest, I don’t know how it happened; things just kept unraveling. Once, twice, three times I went to New York with my return questionable. Countless fall-outs occurred between the staff and me. Then as quickly as the issues came, they all disappeared. By a miracle, I ended the year on a good note; I decided to come back this  year.
      The school year started a little shaky, with the events of the year before still etched deeply in my mind. Thank G-d the year has gone smoothly. Now, entering the final stretch of the year, I am getting ready to graduate high school - something that back in 2010 I never thought would happen.
      Rabbi O, you gave me a brother my entire family is proud of, and you gave me a new look at life. Regardless of everything that occurred between us, I sit here, with tears forming in my eyes, as I think of all of the hows, the whys, and the times that we have shared, both good and bad. You gave me chances I never deserved, and you refused to give up on me. I have never seen people more dedicated to chinuch than you and your sons Moishe & Zalmi. I know it’s not enough, but all I can say is thank you - for EVERYTHING.
      Moishe, Zalmi, I made your jobs needlessly stressful. I know “I’m sorry” does not suffice, but I truly apologize for all that I have done or said to you. The two of you shook me up when I needed it, and all I can hope is that if, G-d forbid, I need another shake, you will be the ones to do it. You put all you can into the students, and I was a fool for not realizing it sooner…
      Mrs. Geller and the entire staff of Trocki High School for Boys, you really changed me. You all gave me an education that I could never have received elsewhere. I truly appreciate it.
      To my fellow classmates, living with you—some one year, others two—has been a remarkable experience for me. Each and every one of you has taught me something I would have missed out on if I were not here. You helped me when I was down, and gave me reasons to get back up. You all are family to me. Thanks for all you have done!
      Avi Slutzkin and Rabbi Amzalak, to hear someone is very simply done; to listen to someone is very uncommon. The two of you listened. A lot. You each helped me pass very difficult stages in my life, and for that alone I am boundlessly grateful. You each gave me advice for how to do it and the necessary courage to fulfill it. It meaning anything I put my mind to.
      Pesha Leah, my dear sister, thank you for everything you taught me and the help and encouragement you have provided me with from up above. May your neshama have one aliya after another.
      Moshe Daniel, although we were not in this world at the same time, I have always felt like I know you. You were my first mentor, and someone I knew I could always turn to. Your day and a half on this world managed to teach me so much about everything real. Since my early childhood, I had a strange inkling that you were more than just with me; that I had a section of your very soul within mine. If, somehow, you are living your life through me all I can pray is that I am doing enough, and that someday, very soon, you will be able to live it for yourself once again.
      To the Rebbe, thank you for the advice and spiritual guidance you constantly provide me with.
      To my beloved mother and dearest siblings [whether blood-related or action-related], no matter what was going on in my life you weren’t there for me; you were there with me. Whether it was advice, love, or even scolding, you did everything humanly possible to be a part of my life - no matter what stage I was in. I know I don’t say it often enough, but I love you each dearly and I’m beyond lucky to have a family like you. You each, in your own way, make it clear that family is family - and you are with me on whatever path I choose to take.
      So here I am getting ready to graduate. However, in reality it is not I who am graduating, but all of you. If it weren’t for all of you combined who knows where I would be - but it definitely would not be here. You each made me who I am today. I would not have reached this milestone if even one of you were not in my life.
      Therefore, with all of my heart, I would like to wish you Mazel Tov on OUR graduation.

My High School English Valedictorian Speech

BS”D

       Kindergarden; Pre-school; Elementary school; Middle school; High school; College.  They all aim for one goal: getting you ready for what lurks outside the school walls. In other words: preparing you for the real world. Their methods may vary; their training different techniques. Yet, the principle is the same; it has not changed. In short terms: a secular studies program; in a little bit longer terms: about eighteen years of education.
       But what is education? Is education playing with a bunch of building blocks that have strange designs on them? Yes it is. That is really where it all begins. However, once playtime is over, it starts to get a little bit more complicated. No longer can you get away with hitting the boy next to you for stealing the toy truck that you grabbed away from the kid across the room.
       You start to read and write. Once you have that down, your teacher decides to call you up to read Run Spot Run in front of the entire class! Then, next month, you need to write ten whole sentences on how you spent your Chanukah vacation. How can you be expected to get that done without a heart failure? A couple of years down the line and you have to write some essay on a topic you don’t care about. I don’t know about you, but I have yet to master the art of stretching the words ‘I honestly don’t care about this topic one bit’ to fill up three pages. If any one of you has, I beg of you, please teach me. To top it all off, your principal then comes over to you and informs you that you now have one week to write a five to six minute speech. Has anyone ever heard of the word ‘break’?
     Then you get to Math class. What was once 1+1=2 and 1+2=3 has now become 4*5=20 and 9/7=1.28. How do you solve it? You’ve run out of fingers and toes! Then, to make it more fun of course, your teacher decides to stick in some random letters! No wonder you can’t solve the problem, letters and numbers don’t mix. Pie. We all loved pie. I say loved in the past tense because by now every high school student want to throw the home-made pie their mother baked for graduation out the nearest window. Let’s not leave out all those weird symbols. They make perfect sense if you speak Greek or Latin. Guess what? We don’t!
     After surviving math class, you walk into the lab for science. I’m telling you these science teachers are all confused. Pluto is a planet. Pluto is not a planet. It is. It isn’t. Every year they come out with new textbooks. No matter what we answer for the question ‘How many planets are there in the solar system?’ we will get it wrong. It’s bad enough we need to learn English, we now have to learn a whole new language for science as well? Carbonaceous film; White dwarf; Ultraviolet radiation; Kohanasey aquifer; Avioli; Gastronomies; Sternoclydomastoyd; Glutomus maximus. The list never ends. They must have some lottery where the next letter picked out is the next one in the name. Most teachers can’t even pronounce them.
     Finally, the last class of the day, History and Geography. So many names, dates, places and events. Unless you were an eyewitness, there is no humanly possible way to remember them all correctly. Is it a coincidence that most history teachers are really old? Anyways, your school then decides to host a world fair. Do they not realize that you can barely remember your own family history, let alone American History? Now they want you to remember some culture in the middle of Africa? What is the point? We will never live there.
     Then, to your horror, you discover that you must redo it all with your kids. The truth finally sinks in: Education never ends…
     Throughout my years of learning, I have been in three different schools besides this one. In each one they pinpointed on a specific subject and focused on it for quite some time. Then I arrived here. In this school they don’t focus on any particular subject, because they understand that a subject is not the full thing. It is only a subcategory of the full object. This school makes it clear form the very beginning that ‘it is a package deal here’. They spend time on every angle that you might possibly need for future reference. I am proud and honored to be a graduate of YNS-Trocki High School for Boys – a school that puts education above everything else.
     We might be too old to play with building blocks, yet we are still building every single time we listen to some boring lecture or take an aggravating test. This is what education truly means. Yes the person next to you may look at you in disbelief, wondering how you claim to have made a fortress if there are only three blocks, but that’s not the point. What’s important is that you see what you are building, and prevent it from ever getting knocked over.