Fair Haven Union High School

Senior Class President Nick Book’s Address to Students

Hello and Welcome to Fair Haven Union High School for the 2010-2011 school year. The way I see it, we come to this high school as adolescents, and the goal, the ideal, is that we leave here as adults, free thinking and armed with knowledge and experience for the road ahead. High school is preparation for the future and the journey through this period of your life will be vigorous if you desire any kind of success or true happiness. But it’s no different than anything else in life. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. you will be tested, you will be challenged.

But high school and the road beyond can and should be so much more than just rigorous preparation. While these four years will challenge you if you choose to rise to the occasion, they can also be the time of your life. If you learn to balance work and play, your experience will be unforgettable.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. You are all capable of failure or simply cruising through this experience and leave here having gained very little or nothing at all. If you never challenge yourself, if you never gain anything valuable from this place, has the system betrayed you? No, you have betrayed yourself. High school, like anything else in life, is all about what you make of it. The staff here in this school are good people, and they can open many doors for you on the path ahead. But you have to be willing to put in your time, and to show that you desire to learn and succeed. You have all the power. The power to fail, the power to just “make it through”, and you all do have the power to succeed. The choice is yours.

I ask all of you to make the very most of your time here and throughout your life. If you don’t, and you’ve failed yourself, I won’t feel sorry for you, and neither will most others. But if you give it your all, you’ll discover at the end that it wasn’t all just about the destination, it was about the friends you’ve made, the things you’ve learned, and the times you’ve had along the way.

It’s all ours for the taking, people.

Thank you,
Nick Book, President, Class of 2011