Happy graduation to all the graduates!

First of all, I want to wish you to stay true to yourself. Be who you are; be driven by the will of being heard, respected and considered. I wish you to always leave part of you in every project, job, achievement, because indeed what you leave behind is how you are going to be remembered. Be the change the world needs right now and I wish you more than anything to be able to help those who are driven by racism, anger and injustice to change their perspectives and once again leave a beautiful and pure part of you in them.

Take the time to thank everyone responsible for your achievements: your teachers, friends, family and even your competition that encouraged you to go further and explore your full potential. Use your knowledge meaningfully and make yourself proud.

I assure you that the efforts have a direct impact on the outcomes. Don’t be afraid to try and make mistakes as long as you learn from them and don’t count on luck – it doesn’t always work.

So, be ambitious, determined and work hard towards your goals.

Let’s show how little importance a graduation party has and celebrate instead a new powerful generation of great minds, strong personalities with the desire to change the world.

Apart from the graduates I want to advise all other students never to waste their time. Learn, observe, listen, take as much as you can from the ones that surround you and use it to your advantage. Use the current situation to reinforce yourself and be ready to enter the adult life as no one else could and had the opportunity.

Conquer every goal with confidence and honesty.

Above all, be a good person as no other great achievement by itself will matter when you can’t be a good human and feel empathy.

And last but definitely not least, I want to thank all the teachers that taught me far more than school material. Special thanks to my personal tutor Mila Zasheva who was beside me, no matter the day and the time in every situation. And of course to our director Mrs Zheliazkova for always guiding us to the right path and choosing the best for us students. I want to thank Petya who is the smiliest person I have ever known. My day couldn’t go wrong with her! Tsvety, thank you for being so caring and for reminding us every day how beautiful we are when we smile.

Congrats to all the graduates who put an enormous amount of effort this year. Thanks to all the teachers who made nearly the impossible for us to receive the best in every situation. Thanks to our parents as well, for being able to believe and support us even when we couldn’t. And of course to Mrs Ilieva and Mrs Zheliazkova who made all of this possible by giving us the best of education!

Farewell!

Cristina Gotzeva – class of 2020