Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

Distinguished guests,

Teachers and staff,

Families and friends

and especially the graduates of the Class of 2008.

Humanity is divided into three parts:

1.    Those who make things happen.

2.    Those who watch things happen.

3.    Those who don’t know what’s happening.

And right now most of us are not sure about what the future holds. Nevertheless, the Instituto Austriaco Guatemalteco and our teachers provided us with the necessary tools to make things happen. We are the leaders of tomorrow and the future of Guatemala lies in our hands. Thanks to our school we are prepared for whatever life throws at us. And as we have to give up the past in order to be ready for the future, opportunity lies at the door.

 To me the end of high school is just the beginning of the next big step in our careers. Our graduation today means just the first of many great accomplishments in our lives. I am sure that we will meet our future objectives.

 I remember when in kindergarten our favorite game was to throw sand at each other. Our school breaks transformed into a surreal world where power rangers battled against super villains. Later on, we put on our school uniforms and our first exams seemed to be only thing we worried about.

 I am sure we will never forget our last years in school. We will remember how Ms.Trappl constantly used the machete to chop our heads off. We always worried that Mr. Hainz and Mr. Pfeiffer would ask us something we didn’t know and always looked for ways to skip their lessons. We had epic battles in the computer room, always trying not to get caught by Mr. Petz. We will definitely miss Mr. Hainz’s excuses and smiles after getting an undesired result out of the experiments. Mr. Pfeiffer will always be considered as the freshest and coolest teacher ever.

 We will always remember operation Night Fox which nearly caused us girls a heart attack. But we ladies took revenge and left a fellow student without transportation. We have never been well-organized party planners, but we partied like rock stars and had the greatest time of our lives. We always had fun in our lessons and we always learned new things like Mefisto, Dante and the Lady of Xibalba. Our Maturareise, which may be one of the most exciting trips we have made so far, brought us together not only as a class but as a big family. I don’t know if it was the heat but we always seemed to be really thirsty. We also took advantage of our new classrooms, especially of our new sound system. Always singing and dancing, turning our breaks into a party. At that time homework, exams and the matura were definitely not on our minds.

 We always had the support of our teachers, especially Mr. Petz, who made sure that we always tried to do our best and we appreciated most that he always had faith in us. We would like to thank him for that. I would also like to thank our parents who gave us their unconditional love, understanding and support in good times and in bad times.

 Now that we end this stage in our lives, a new phase begins. Please, know that you are all capable of being extraordinary. You have made it this far. So like Goethe said, “Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men”

 Life is a blank canvas waiting for us to paint our future upon it in any way we chose. So start painting.