Our daughter Milly was selected as Valedictorian for the Fernie Secondary School G12 graduating Class of 2026. It was with great pride that we watched her deliver an incredible speech in front of a large crowd of her peers, their families and community members - she was confident and assured despite her nerves!
She received the most amazing feedback after commencement, especially from her fellow students, who expressed how much her words resonated with them.
We're sharing Milly's speech here so you can read it in full. Our hope is that it inspires others to go out into the world, stay curious, and discover their own path, at their own pace.
Milly's Full Speech
Kiʔsuʔk wiƣnam, Bonjour, and Good Morning to members of the community, faculty, proud parents, and of course my fellow graduates. My name is Milly Gadd, and I am incredibly honoured to be standing before you today as the valedictorian for the graduating Class of 2026.
First of all, I want to thank the people that make this moment possible. To our parents and families, especially my mum and dad, thank you for the support, encouragement, sacrifices, and the countless hours you put in that led to this moment.
To our teachers, coaches, school staff, volunteers, and mentors, thank you for believing in us even on the days we didn’t believe in ourselves.
To our friends, who were there for the late nights, the stressful weeks, the inside jokes and everything we couldn’t have gotten through alone. Thank you for making these years so special.
I’ve spent a long time thinking about what I wanted to share today and kept coming back to one statistic that has changed the way I think about life.
Apparently, the odds of being born are roughly 1 in 400 trillion. Let’s think about that.
The odds that your ancestors survived. The odds that your parents met. The odds that one exact moment happened in one split second, leading to you to be here today. Out of all the people who could have existed, you are 1 in 400 trillion.
But it’s incredible how often we forget how special we are. We spend so much of our high school years worrying about getting things right.
The perfect grades.
The perfect plans.
The perfect future.
Especially as graduation has approached, it can feel like everyone is asking us what comes next. And it feels like we need all the answers.
But one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in this past year is that success is not built on perfection. Success is built on the ability to learn from mistakes, adapt when things don’t go according to plan, and keep moving forward anyway. Success is built on resilience.
And if there’s one thing our graduating class understands, it’s that growth rarely happens in a straight line. We’ve all experienced our share of setbacks, lost games, failed tests, missed opportunities, and faced challenges that nobody else could see.
We’ve had moments where we have doubted ourselves and moments where the future felt uncertain. Yet here we are. Not because everything went perfectly, but because we kept going.
For me, this lesson has become especially important as I prepare to leave the Fernie Bubble. After graduation, I’ve decided to take a gap year. And for a long time, I felt like I needed an explanation for my decision. As if choosing a different path meant I was falling behind. But I have come to the realization that growth is not a race, and certainty was never the goal.
After all, we are just teenagers. We are here, standing at the very beginning of our adult lives, and there is an entire world waiting beyond these beautiful mountains.
My gap year is not about uncertainty or failure. It’s about giving myself the opportunity to learn, explore and grow before moving into the next chapter.
And as someone told me earlier this year: Stay curious as long as you can. Because curiosity doesn’t require certainty. It simply asks us to keep moving forward.
After today, every one of us is stepping into something new. Some of us are heading to university, some into the workforce, some into trades and some are still figuring things out.
And maybe that’s what graduation truly is. Not the moment we finally have all the answers, but the moment we realize we don’t need them yet.
I’ve grown up with this graduating class. The people sitting beside me today are the kids I learned to read with, played cops and robbers with on the elementary school playground, sat with in Ms. Webb’s room at lunch, cheered for at games, and laughed with through every awkward and unforgettable stage of growing up.
And for those who joined the Falcon family later, you became part of this story too. Somewhere along the way, this simply became our class.
When I walk through the school hallways, I don’t just see familiar faces. I see stories, I see memories and I see friendships. I see years of shared experiences that helped shape us into who we are today.
Years from now, we won’t remember struggling to finish our capstones the day before they were due, or almost getting sent home early on the grade 11 camping trip. We might not even remember who won senior assassin. But we will remember how this felt. We’ll remember who sat beside us in class. Who cheered us on and who believed in us.
As Maya Angelou once said, people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
And maybe that’s what makes today so bittersweet. Not because it’s ending, but because we finally realize how special it was while we were living it.
As I stand here today, I don’t think that statistic is really about the chances of being born. I think it is about perspective. Because out of 400 trillion possibilities, somehow, we ended up here. And maybe the best thing we can do with this incredible gift is to stay curious, embrace the unknown, and make the most of the life we’ve been lucky enough to receive.
So let us remember that every single one of us here has already won the lottery. Not because of where we’re going, or what we’ve accomplished.
But because, against all odds, we are here. We got this life, we got this town, we got this school, and perhaps most importantly, we all got each other.
Thank you and congratulations to the Class of 2026.
Congratulations to Milly and to the entire Fernie Secondary School Class of 2026. Watching this group of kids grow up in this town, and hearing what they took away from it, is a pretty good reminder of why we love raising a family here.
Milly heads into a gap year next, curious and open about where it takes her. We can’t wait to see it.
This is the kind of community Fernie is. If you’re curious what it’s like to raise a family here, give me a call or send me a note anytime at (778) 745-0347 or phil@philgadd.com.
Phil Gadd is the owner of First Tracks Real Estate Group, operating under eXp Realty in Fernie, BC. With deep local knowledge and a client-first approach, Phil helps buyers and sellers across Fernie, Sparwood, Jaffray, and Lake Koocanusa find their perfect mountain property. 72 five-star Google reviews. livinginfernie.com | 778-745-0347