Tonight my youngest graduates from secondary school. This is to celebrate him, his classmates, his teachers and us as his family for surviving the teenage years..so far!

Congratulations to all graduating classes of 2023. Your future is bright. Make the most of it.

There’s algebra and calculus, geometry and long division

Suspense accounts and Question One, sole traders and their indecision

There’s atoms, bonding, moles and the periodic table

Photosynthesis and respiration, fiber optic cables

And Shakespeare and Macbeth and William Butler Yeats

Irish essays, comprehension, endless French debates 

There’s calculators, rulers, trigonometry and logs

Oxidation, cell division, ecology and frogs

There’s Byzantium and Amadillo, Oedipus the King

Brian Friel and Oscar Wilde, enzymes and a benzene ring

And what about nutrition, so much sugar in the system

You’d think that all this learning would impart a little wisdom

But with chemistry, biology, a little French and English Lit

Accounting and Geometry, you’re learning quite a bit

You’re bound to be an expert in whatever field you choose

But it’s hard to keep on going and trying to enthuse

Remember that there’s more to you than all this information

Exam results and random grades should not determine your elation

What’s important is what lies within and how you choose to be

Your personality, your strength and heart means so much more to me

Regardless of the outcome, if you regurgitate or not,

There will always be an option, you could be a cosmonaut

Whatever the next few months will bring, be it what you want or no

Your choices are unlimited, and I look forward to the show

So just try to keep the head down, just for a little more

And then the world is at your feet and the wind is in your hair

Bring the knowledge with you, but not just the moles and math

Remember who you’ve learned to be, who you’ve met along your path

Your life is just beginning, you’re only at the start

So go and do the best you can, and remember whose son you are.