2001 Graduation Speech Essays - , Term Papers

2001 Graduation Speech Jessica McCoy When I think about the class of 2001 Im reminded of a story that Im sure we were all told when we were younger; The Little Engine that Could. The little engine struggles and struggles to get over that one hill, and after working hard enough and never giving up he finally makes it. Thats how we are, weve struggled for 13 years to get over this one hill. Weve worked long years starting with broken crayons in kindergarten to inside-out sweatshirts in middle school. 13 years of learning from the simplest 2+2 to complicated algebra and calculus, from reciting our ABCs to reading Shakespeare. But now weve finally made it, and our real journey is beginning. Whats next is up to us. We are the generation and the class that will bring our world further. When the little engine started his journey it seemed overwhelming at first, like us coming out of our small middle schools to this huge high school. Our first day of school I remember walking into every class late, not knowing what to expect, o r who anyone was. Then our second day when all the upperclassmen joined us. Scared to walk down the halls, because we had all heard the stories of the Seniors picking on the freshman. When we were freshmen we struggled to fit in at the bottom of the rank and attempted to earn the respect we deserved. Somehow we managed to make it through our first year of high school. By the time we were Sophomores we may not have been completely settled into our own high-school persona, but atleast we knew where we were at, and that first day of school we were still late to every single class, but then we got to tease the freshmen. That was the year of our drivers license and our first jobs. We had started gaining responsibilities and noticed that we were growing up. When our Junior year came around we were finally upperclassmen. We could go out to lunch, legally, and go to prom. We were forced to think about our future being asked what do you want to do when you grow answering I dont know after of course explaining that we were grown up. It was time to say good-bye to the Seniors that were sophomores when we were freshman, and watch them pave the way for us to follow, knowing that our day would soon come, and sure enough before we knew it, we were starting our famous senior countdown. We finally got to participate in all the Senior events. tryied to raise money for our senior trip, and tried to get people to donate blood for the red cross. It seemed difficult when we realized we had just watched our last game, danced our last dance, and when we walked down the hall to take our last final, thats when it finally hit us that were going to graduate soon. Right now we all have a legacy that weve left here at West High, a legacy developed from four years of walking down the halls, eight semesters of sitting in the classrooms and sixteen quarters of developing our own personalities. We were the anxious freshman, the obnoxious sophomores, the lazy juniors, and now the graduating seniors. But in 10 years, who will we be? Whatever the answer is what weve each learned here will remain at the core of the people we will become. So like the little engine, we will have many hills to climb, small ones and big ones. I want you to remember that when things get tough and you feel like giving up, just think of the little engine that could and whisper to yourself; I think I can...I think I can...I think I can....Thank you.

Viet Minh and Indochina essays

Viet Minh and Indochina essays The role the Viet Minhs leadership played in the defeat of the French in the first Indochina War can be identified by examining several relevant pieces of information. Firstly the personal strength of the three key figures leading the Viet Minh, secondly the weakness of the French both in Indochina and domestically combined with their use of unsound, badly thought-out tactics. This was coupled with the large scale support of the Viet Minh by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLC) of China, in conjunction with a breakdown in post-war colonialism worldwide. All these factors must be examined to correctly identify the significance of the role of the Viet Minhs leaders. Ho Chi Minh, the man who established the Viet Minh (VM) in May 1941, probably played the greatest role of anybody in the war, between 1946-54 and is now by far the most well known character of the period. Ho played a cameo role in the VMs military success however he knew basic guerilla warfare tactics, was extremely knowledgeable in most areas of the war and was fiercely determined. "You (the French) will kill 10 of our men and we will kill one of yours. But in the end it will be the French, and not us, that will tire of it."- Ho Chi Minh (1946) He did not even play a large role in the political leadership of the Viet Minh. Hos main role was to unite the Vietnamese people under a nationalist banner belying a communist rgime. He knew that to gain sufficient support he would have to appeal to the peasants who made up 90% of the population. This was not difficult as the peasants were fed up with the steep land taxes, inhumane working conditions and the egotistic attitude of French leaders. They saw the VMs objective as a nationalist movement rather than a communist one. It was also Ho Chi Minh that gained the support of the PLA, which ultimately changed the outcome of the war and the Viet Minhs victory over the French was ...