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To the graduating Class of 2019, Congratulations! You did it. We’ve made it. Every individual in this room, be it a parent, a sibling, or a teacher has been a part of our journey through the IB. With your support, not only have we been motivated to endure the struggles and stress that came our way, but have also ensured that our bodies do not run purely on caffeine. So today is just not a milestone in the lives of us students, but an important day for everyone who encouraged us.

It’s hard to put into words what we all have endured throughout the past 2 years. I’m sure you can all agree with us when we say, it’s been an emotional ride, don’t even get me started on the amount of mental breakdowns we have had in these two years. I can hardly believe that we are here. But now that all the stress, assignments, deadlines, and exams are over, it’s time for us to graduate and start a new chapter in our lives.

As many of you probably know, I’ve been here for longer than I care to admit. (Shout out to Tom who is the only other student who’s been here longer than me and shares my struggles). I’ve been here so long that I’ve managed to have Mr. Kleinsmith as a 4th grade math teach as well as a 10th grade humanities teacher. However, these years have really been the best of my life. I’ve made so many great friends and memories that I will never forget. Although we might not miss the actual school part of high school, I know we will all miss each other and the friendships we have built during our time here at SIS.

The SIS faculty is like a family. I can say that with utmost certainty because when I re-joined this school in grade 10, all the familiar faces, be it teachers, or old friends made my transition seamless. Today when I look back on my journey, this school has truly shaped me into the individual I have grown into. As an ode to my teachers, I would like to express my gratitude to Ms. Saha, Mr. Cevert, Ms. U and more recently Ms. Gonzales, for being there for my endless queries, and all the other IB teachers and staff for being a part of our learning processes. Ms. Nhandara, for reducing mine (and Maya’s silly mistakes) and Ms. Ericsson, who constantly reminded me to keep my sentences short and conscience. I promise that is all I was thinking about when I was preparing for this speech. And a special thank you to my Spanish teacher, Ms. Paloma, who more than a teacher, became a motivator, a confidant and a friend at this school. She identified my strengths and pushed me to excel in every domain. I could even go as far as to say that she became my second mother.

Now moving on, I remember someone said, *Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom* – Now, should I cite this quote in the MLA format, Ms. Oman? Never mind that was Oprah (#plagiarism fear). But on that note, in my Hindu culture, one who provides education, one who imparts knowledge to others is held at the highest pedestal. At SIS, we as students were surrounded by such individuals constantly, and through these two years, my anterior hippocampus certainly has increased many folds (psychology reference – for all the econ and history students looking at me like, yo what’s she talking about). So thank you, teachers, thank you parents, and thank you SIS for providing me with a platform so unique and special that shall allow me to venture out to all that the future holds for me.

Having practically grown up in this school, I feel that I can say that SIS has really shaped me as a person. I will always cherish the memories and friendships I’ve built during my time here. I think it’s fair to say that getting through these past two years would have been impossible for us without support from our friends and classmates, whether it was through proofreading each other’s essays, or lightning the mood before exams.

None of us would have gotten through this had it not been for the teachers helping us along the way. They have had to deal without stress, our freakouts and our gazillions emails asking for help and extensions, and for that, we are very thankful. We would like to say a special thank you to Ms. Smith and Mr. Ampuja for being our wonderful advisors and helping us stay, well, semi-sane and keeping us on track with CAS, whether we wanted to or not

Finally, we would like to thank Mrs. Öman. We can say with 1000% certainty that, had it not been for you, we would not be here, graduating, today. You have truly been our rock and our lifeboat how has kept us together and managed to get us across the finish line. Thank you for everything.  

Stockholm international school is a place where we are taught to break the stereotypes and learn to define ourselves as we choose. But, let’s not forget, this school also offers one of the hardest and most annoying programs – the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. We sincerely hope, we never have to face something as difficult as the IB. So, today as Maya and I represent the IBDP graduating class of 2019, we just want to finally conclude by saying… WE OUT.