Gillian was also asked to give the commencement speech. She wrote it all on her own, and I loved it. The only aid she got from me was helping her get on Google and find a few quotes relevant to her topic, everything else she wrote all by herself. I was impressed how confident and clear she sounded up there in the pulpit. I guess all those voice lessons and performances on stage help in more than one way. Listening to her speech filled me with pure joy and a knowledge that Gillian will truly succeed in life. Here is what she said:
The Value of Education
A great
American musician, B.B.King, once said: “The beautiful thing about
learning is no one can take it away from you." Since
the moment I was born my mother was reading to me. As she spoke, her words seeped into my brain
and I soon started to read on my own. My
mother is a smart woman. By starting to
read to me at a very young age, she opened the door to education, and no
one could take that away from me.
Education at
a young age will help you when you grow into adulthood. Say you wanted to get a job, in your
interview your employer will ask you what schools you go to or went to. The employer wants to make sure that you are
his best choice. If you are not well
educated your employer will likely choose someone else.
One day when
you get older, you will get married and have children, your children will look
up to you for answers. They will copy
whatever you do or say and will learn about the importance of education from
you. It is important now to educate
yourself and learn the ways of the world, so that you can be better prepared
for the life ahead of you. Listen to
your teachers. They are here to help
you. The things you learn now and the
way you act will affect your life
forever. If you can achieve a good education, you will
be amazed. People will look up to you,
every employer will want you, and you will be happy.
I love to
hear new things. When I figure out the
answer to a hard math question and I can see the light bulb pop on, I always
get a proud feeling. I am delighted when
I learn a new word, or discover a different way to do something. Whenever I write I can almost see all my
thoughts zooming around my head. The
light and glow of knowledge that is in every mind is just waiting to be
unleashed. Through education you can
open a door. Your brain is ready to show
the world all it knows, only if you let it.
When I grow
up, I want to be a writer, a doctor, or even an astronaut. If I am a writer, I could inspire people with
my writing. If I am a doctor, I can save
people’s lives or find the antidote for cancer!
What do you want to be? A singer,
a dancer, a juggler, a farmer, a designer?
Whatever you want to do or whoever you want to be if you work hard, if you
never give up, and if you have an education, the world is yours.
A wise man,
Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon with which
you can use to change the world.” Go forth then and change the world.
Continuing with graduation theme, on Saturday Gillian, Jefferson, and James gave their final piano recital for the school year. They all graduated from their corresponding level, received awards for being among the best for their National Guild performance, with Gillian having received 100% in all of her seven pieces. In the end, their teacher also distinguished the very few students who received above 90% in their California Certificate of Merit Theory Test, with Jefferson achieving one of the highest scores, 97%. The recital was beautiful with all of Mrs. Morrison's students performing each a new piece. I didn't bring my camera with me, so I ended up taking pictures with my phone, but most of the pictures didn't turn out that great. Sorry about that.
This week, we also celebrated Father's Day. The kids loved making little gifts and cards for Elijah. Elijah's big gift from them was a new ginormous tent for the whole family. The boys can't wait to go camping.
I'm so grateful that Elijah is such a sweet, kind and thoughtful dad. All of our kids feel the right amount of love, awe and respect for him. It's beautiful to watch. I love it that they each want their personal time with dad, telling them about their day, their ups and downs, wanting to play or do a projects with just him. They each have a strong relationship with Elijah and think the world of him. He has taught our kids many things through out the years, but what my kids love and appreciate the most is his calm disposition, the love and patience that he shows when he teaches them a principle about life, his willingness to share his time with them even when he is exhausted beyond words, his unwavering testimony about the gospel and his love for Heavenly Father, his work ethic, and Elijah's love and respect for their mother. My favorite thing about Elijah as a father is the prevalent importance he places in fatherhood. I get tears in my eyes when I get little reminders in my email or texts about articles he read or scriptures he found that would be great to share with the specific child, with whom he had had a heart to heart conversation the night before. In all he does, the children and myself are number one in his life, and we have never had a doubt about that. I couldn't have asked for a better father to my children.
I asked Jefferson to take a picture of Elijah and me that day, and since I've been teaching them how to take pictures as of late, any chance they get they want to do a photo shoot. Today's subject was their mother, and Jefferson and I had a great time switching our places, with him telling me what to do and me trying to pose for him. Needless to say he was in heaven. I know it should have been Elijah in the pictures being Father's Day and all, but as Jefferson said dad is amazing in most things, but when it comes to modeling mom is more playful and funner to work with :) We took a lot of fun ones, but here are some of my favorite pictures of me taken by Jefferson:
My gift to Elijah for Father's Day was a relaxing date with me. We usually plan our dates together, but this time I told him it was a surprise. He was a bit apprehensive, since he likes to know what's going on. I think he was worried I would be taking him bungee jumping, or dance classes, or some place where he would be embarrassed. Nothing of that sort. This was a gift after all, not a punishment. Elijah and I spend a nice afternoon eating dinner at Lake Chalet in Oakland located on the shores of Lake Merritt. I love any body of water, be that an ocean, sea, lake or river. The movement of the waves and the current, mixed with the breeze, have a soothing effect on me. After the dinner, I had made reservations for a 40-minute gondola ride on the lake. The gondolas were brought from Venice after having been used for a short while transporting tourists from one end of the city to the other. Even our gondolier was Italian. He sang some Italian songs to us as he rowed our boat around the lake, but I wished Elijah had sung to me instead. That boy had no singing talent whatsoever. Nonetheless, the whole experience was beautiful, and most importantly Elijah enjoyed himself. We ended our evening with some delicious gelato.
I know this post has gone way beyond long, but amongst all of the hot weather days of this particular week, we experienced one rainy day that made my boys crazy with desire to play outside. They couldn't have enough of "singing in the rain." Rainy days are good for reading and relaxing, but since this week was completely taken with celebrations, I was glad to find some time to clean and tidy up. While I was hard at work, the boys were having fun outside playing, singing, dancing, and taking pictures.
These were taken by James while Jefferson was showing off the many facets of his personality:
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| The many expressions of Jefferson |
Jefferson took a lot of pictures of my younger boys singing and dancing, but these are my favorite:
