East Valley: The measure of our gratitude

We, the senior class of 2007, ask a moment to express our gratitude

For all that has made us who we are, and who we will be.

We are grateful for the people –

For our guardians, our role models

Examples of what to be, or sometimes not to be

Our friends and opponents and providers.

And for our teachers – the kindness, leniency and humor

A thank you for seeing that we are potential

And giving us the tools to succeed, sometimes in spite of ourselves.

And for our friends

Laughter, commiseration and patience incarnate

We are grown up together, more or less than

We might have guessed when we were younger.

We are grateful for the large things -

For this home, this close-knit city town that

Though we now may be eager to leave,

Intoxicated on impending freedom and

Impatient to test the bounds and limits of our abilities on a larger stage

Is nevertheless still a place we can return, to stay.

We are grateful for the trivialities –

The small things that have combined for our greater happiness and health

Lazy summer afternoons

And nights spent in good company

That we are free from having to pass the WASL

Or complete a culminating project.

Lastly, we are thankful for that which we are not yet thankful for

Those things we have yet the wisdom, experience and hindsight to appreciate

But will tell you when we do.