Graduation Speech

Graduation Speech

Cristian Castro

Welcome friends, families, and my fellow graduates. I hope you are having a great day, and maybe this speech can make it even better. It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to speak out in front of everybody tonight and be able to address my feelings, memories, and great moments with you all.

For 4 years I have attended Golf Middle School, I have been surrounded by many great friends, teachers, and staff. These people have shaped my  personality, character, and by overall making me the person that you see before you. I have not just been surrounded by great people I have been loved by them and been cared for by them. My education, knowledge, and understanding of the world has grown so much more by being a proud cardinal and learning from my teachers. These teachers however did not just teach us what us graduates know today, they took us on eventful field trips that we will never forget. Field trips such as Camp MacLean and The Holocaust Museum. The staff even put together yearly masquerade dances in october with a DJ and haunted house (built by the staff themselves by the way). This great faculty at Golf Middle School did all of this for us the 8th graders, these are gifts that I will never be able to repay. I say thank you to all of the teachers and staff of Golf Middle School for giving me moments and memories that I will always be able to look back upon and think to myself, “Man, I wish I could relive those great moments and days when I was a 8th grader at Golf Middle School.”

My advice and words of wisdom for future graduates of Golf Middle School is to never give up. There were times in the years of me being at Golf Middle School when I thought to myself that I wasn’t going to do well on this upcoming test, I wasn’t going to be able to finish and turn in this project on time, I wasn’t going to be able to finish my reading on time, I even thought at times I wasn’t going to pass this class. But then I told myself to never give up, so I studied hard for those tests, I worked hard on those projects, I pushed my reading limits to the next level, and I turned in all the work and gave 100% effort in those classes. And after all of that the outcome of it all wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. So this just shows that if you work hard, stay strong, and keep believing, positive things will happen.

I would like to thank all of my teachers, administrators, parents, staff, and my fellow students for giving me 4 great years of my life that I will never forget and be able to look back upon whenever I would like. Please give yourselves a round of applause.

People would always ask me what are you gonna do in life and I would say play soccer, then they would ask me, yeah but really what are you gonna do later on when you need a job, and I would be like yeah play soccer. Somebody would come up to me and say stop dreaming and face reality, you know what I would say back? I wouldn’t say something rude or physically hurt that person. I would say to them, “Well, I’m gonna keep on dreaming and make that dream a reality.” This is my philosophy and moral code that I live by, just keep on dreaming and show people that if you pursue your dreams you can achieve them.

My hopes for the future are to become a professional soccer player and play for Barcelona and graduate college.  

A poem to tie all of my thoughts together,

“Graduation, A celebration… A time for looking back on lessons learned, adventures shared, and bright moments filled with special meaning. A farewell… A time for saying goodbye to old friends, to good times you’ve known… a time for packing away memories, treasures for tomorrow. A beginning… A time for looking forward, a time to set new goals, to dream new dreams, to try your wings and see what lies beyond.” by-Tammy Sackmann.

And now a famous quote by a famous actor we should all know, Dr.Seuss,

“You have brains in your head, You have feet on your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. You're the guy who will decide where to go.”

Once again, I would like to give one last round of applause to the whole community of this great school, Golf Middle School that has nurtured all of these amazing students by my side to the people we are today.

Thank you for listening and have a goodnight.

Tips on How to Cheat on a Test

Hello everybody, today I'm going tell you on how to cheat. Yes you heard me right how to cheat on a test! Now, I have a lot of great tactics on how to cheat, just know right now that if you get caught I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU GETTING IN TROUBLE! Now let's get to work, there are a couple different ways of cheating in school on a test. Freestyle cheating, cheating by looking at somebody's paper, and Note cheating, cheating while looking at a paper under a desk or on you body. 1st rule of freestyle cheating, never look up from your paper if your freestyle cheating because if a teacher catches your eyes looking around the room. ABORT! MISSION! You have no reason to look up on a test in the 1st place unless your looking for answers around the room so, that shows the teacher that something is up, and the teacher will keep a close eye on you for the rest of the test. Peek at neighbor's test only when teacher is either facing away or at desk looking at their computer. I am not that experienced with note cheating because I don't do note cheating, but I do have a couple tips for notes cheating. Always keep all notes and papers under desk and in folders that are tinted but not completely tinted so that you are still able to see the cheating paper inside. DON'T USE A COMPLETELY SEE THROUGH FOLDER because it is way to obvious if a teacher sees a see through folder under a desk. That's pretty much it for how to best cheat on a test. Now remember, cheating is only a last resort if needed to go there on a test and you think you have no hope in the world to succeed on the test. Just remember though cheating isn't good at all, and the consequences if you get caught can be very severe including getting a "F" on the test, detention, maybe even getting kicked out of the school if you are in college. Be safe, be sneaky, and the number 1 rule! Don't get caught! Have a good day. :)     

Goals for the end of the school year

My goals for the end of my 8th grade school year is to still be who I am as a person. By that I mean that I want to make sure my grades don't take a nose dive downwards because a lot of kids tend to start thinking about graduation and summer break, this usually leads to kids forgetting about their academics before the school year is even over. It's not though, and I don't wanna be one of those kids whose grades go down because I was to excited for summer. Another goal I would like to reach by the end of my 8th grade school year is to eat healthier because I have lately been addicted to eating junk food like Cheetos, Kit Kats, drinking more soda then I usually do, and adding more sugar to my Saturday morning cheerios. I don't want my 8th grade school year to end with me looking more overweight then I usually am so one of my goals to to stop eating junk food and work out my body more so that doesn't happen. I think my final goal I would like to achieve at the end of my 8th grade school year is to be a better person and not get into as much trouble as I do right now and as I did before because being a good person and being nice to people makes people happy, and when I make somebody happy it makes me happy because I am bringing that person joy. I wanna be that person by the end of my 8th grade year because it will be a great skill for me to take with me in high school and for the rest of my life. Those are my goals for the end of my 8th grade year, have a good day!         

Field Trip to Camp MacLean

In 7th grade towards the end of the year, I'd say around late April the whole 7th grade took a field trip to a Camp in Rockland called Camp MacLean. A few teachers came along as well to monitor us (obviously) and it was a field trip when you stay over for the night at the camp, basically like a sleepover field trip at a camp. You would sleep in a cabin with all boys if you were a boy and you would sleep with all girls if you were a girl. We stayed over only 1 night and each teacher was sleeping and monitoring their cabin at night. During the days we were there we would travel along with a group mixed boys and girls, a teacher, and a director/instructor to show us around the camp. You would do team building activities, rock climbing, fishing, archery, play sports, and a game of capture the flag at night after you ate dinner. For the game of capture the flag the teachers gave us orange and yellow face paint to have 2 separate teams, it was a lot of fun but unfortunately my team lost.  I enjoyed the food they served us. They served us breakfast lunch and dinner. Then when it was time to go to sleep everybody brushed their teeth and went to sleep. When it was time to go everybody was sad because camp MacLean was so much fun and nobody wanted to leave, but all great things come to a end. We packed and loaded our stuff onto the bus and we were off back to school. This had to be the best field trip I had ever gone on in my entire life. Let me know, what was your favorite field trip you've ever taken with your school?       

Historical Diary Entry During the Holocaust

Dec. 17, 1937

Dear Diary, 

Hello diary, today is my birthday, but I'm not feeling joy or getting presents like every other normal non Jewish kid. I'm still stuck up in a one room apartment with my father, mother, and 2 younger sisters Ariella and Aliza in my Lodz ghetto.We have to share the one room as best as we can and divide spaces in the one room as our "own personal spaces". It is mid December and it is very cold outside and in our apartment, this doesn't surprise me because those stubborn Germans don't give us any heaters in our apartments anyways.

Today in the morning my whole family sang me happy birthday and offered to sacrifice their hunger and offered me their rations of bread for the day. I refused to take it because even though it is my birthday I still want my family to remain healthy and eat their food because I love them. My cousin Abel invited me outside to have a playful snowball fight with some of his friends from his apartment, I said yes and and asked if I could bring some of my friends and my sisters from my apartment. He said, "Of course, the more the merrier." That got me to remember that Christmas was right around the corner, but obviously nobody in the ghetto receives presents except for maybe bread rations, if that even counts as a present.

All in all today wasn't so bad compared to most other days, though I didn't get a birthday cake or presents I still enjoyed my time being with my friends and family. Another day living is something that I will always be happy about, and having fun in that day makes it even better. 

Good night diary.         

Daniel's Story Love Quote

“We must live, and when this is all over, we must work to make the world a better place.  And if we die, we will die knowing that it was not our fault, that we did our best, and we can go to our deaths in dignity… I want you both to live…And to remember...You must choose love.  Always choose love.”  

(from Daniel’s Story by Carol Matas, page 70)

In the book Daniel's Story Daniel's grandfather Opa Samuel (Opa means grandfather in German). Opa Samuel chose love when Oma Rachel was being taken away by the Jewish police to go on the transports to a different terrible place in Lodz for Jews. Opa Samuel chose love because he didn't want to leave his wife (Oma Rachel) because he loved her and didn't want to leave his wife to the dreadful Germans. Opa Samuel knew that the Germans might have done bad things to Oma Rachel, he knew he couldn't stop them, but at least she wouldn't have to feel and be alone. And at least Oma Rachel can have her husband by her side. Opa Samuel basically risked his life for Oma Rachel, he knew the consequences and he died for it, but this shows how he chose love over everything else that was left in his life. This shows how another character in Daniel's story other than Erika who chose love over everything else in the world.    

Sunday Soccer Games

On Sundays I go to my usual soccer games with my teams, I say teams because I actually play for 2 teams. 1 of the teams I play for is my club team, the other team is a side league I go to for fun and to play with friends and some of my teammates from my club team.  Today is Sunday, and I played soccer games obviously. Something special about today's games was that I scored a goal in each game. I scored 1 goal for my club team, and 1 goal for my side league. If my team and I play very well I usually score in each game and we get a win. But today was a good and bad day for wins and defeats, in my 1st game I scored a goal and my team and I won 3-0. But in my second game in my side league, I scored a goal but we lost the game 3-2. It was a very exciting game though, we showed the opponents that they were gonna have to fight hard if they wanted to win. In the end though they won fair and square, I respect them for that. I think the ref could have done a little better though for us because we weren't getting any calls in our favor. Still I always enjoy myself when I'm playing soccer whether that be with my club team or with my friends, and I always remind myself that I'm playing for the love for the game and to grasp my dream of becoming a professional player of the sport.