Schools

'Look At Me Now, I'm Gettin Paper'

Lake Zurich High School seniors graduated May 28. Monika Gasiorek, salutatorian, shares her thoughts on leaving LZHS and gives readers the opportunity to read the speech she gave at the graduation ceremony.

When Monika Gasiorek thinks about the fact that she just graduated from Lake Zurich High School, she said it doesn't feel like she thought it would.

"It doesn't feel like the end because it isn't," said Gasiorek. "It's really a beginning to the next four years of my life, and it doesn't make me feel too sad because I know I can always come back."

Rather than feeling sad about moving on from LZHS and the Lake Zurich community, Gasiorek said she is "more excited for the future, and I am thankful for all the preparation this school has provided me with for the real world."

"I think the thing I will miss the most about LZHS is the great sense of community," said Gasiorek. "I've become really close with all my teachers and am now able to recognize basically everybody at the school and have established great relationships with many people. And I think it's scary now that I have to see which ones will survive the test of  time. It's a great feeling knowing that no matter what you need, there is someone here in Lake Zurich - and especially at the high school - that can help you, but most importantly wants to help you."

At LZHS, Gasiorek was a member of the National Honor Society and the Tri-M Music Honor Society. She volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and served as president of the school's Habitat for Humanity group her senior year. She also played tennis for four years - three on the varsity squad - and was a member of the color guard that performed at football games. The winter color guard, which Gasiorek also participated in, took first and second place at state this year. She also played the flute in the LZHS Wind Ensemble.

This fall, Gasiorek will attend American University in Washington, D.C., where she will double major in international relations and language/area studies, the latter focusing on Spanish/Latin America. She hopes to attend law school as a graduate student.

Below, Gasiorek shares the text of the speech she gave at the May 28 graduation ceremony. Congratulations, Monika!

Students, teachers, family, and friends, my name is Monika Gasiorek and as the salutatorian of the Lake Zurich High School Graduating Class of 2011, I stand before you in hopes of providing a sufficient summary of our four years here as high school students. Thanks to the world of social networking, we already have photo albums filled with thousands of pictures to represent how we have spent our time here. However, I believe there is a necessary addition that should be made to these images, another form of lasting memories, and that is music.

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Eric Olson once said, “Music is what life sounds like.” Some choose to live their life through music, while others use it as a necessary complement to their personal life experiences. Either way, music is an inevitable element of life, such as water, air, earth and fire. Although we may choose what genre or genres of music suit us as individuals, all forms of music define our values as a group, as humanity. So, I thought I’d create a soundtrack to all those albums, a lasting memory of what sounds played in the background of all our captured moments.

We entered this building as freshman four years ago, still middle schoolers from experience, sporting our Hollister polos and many of us still in braces thinking “this is why I’m hot.” We were the class of 2011, double ones. It didn’t take long to realize this was our new home, but not yet our territory. The football team took us down to U of I for state that year, the first experience that truly gave us the Bear pride we have exemplified in an outstanding manner ever since. We went on to learn what studying really meant, how to get involved in the community, how to work it, make it, do it, which made us harder better faster stronger as we became the next generation of Lake Zurich Bears.

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We came back the next year as sophomores, this time thinking, “I’m bringing sexy back.” Yeah...  As sophomores we weren’t the youngest anymore, we knew what to expect, and we had the power to start a new trend, white T-shirt Monday. It ended up being a year of new trends for many: Katy Perry kissed a girl - and she liked it - while Beyonce wondered “if I were a boy…” and Britney Spears came back with a circus - but no hair. That year we became licensed drivers, out on the streets, gaining a new type of independence. Many of us started getting jobs, “got money and you know it.” Everything we had learned as being representative of a true Bear character we began to apply out in the real world.

Junior year, the year of the climb. We were finally upperclassmen, we got to sit with the seniors at football games and we were “fire burning on the dance floor” at prom. However, with that came all the testing and preparations necessary for our college applications. Needless to say we were still able to join Miley as we made the year a “Party in the USA.” As juniors we understood for the first time what it meant to be role models, as we put on a “poker face” and showed everyone how to take advantage of all the opportunities we are given here at LZHS properly. We started learning more about ourselves as individuals as we conquered a year that presented us with plentiful responsibilities and showed us that “there’s always gonna be another mountain.”

Finally, senior year. For many the best one yet. The year that “black and yellow” became the new blue and white. The year of the the whiteboard and megaphone, a new tradition we leave behind as a representation of our true Bear pride and spirit. The year our football team took us down to state once more, a living flashback and a phenomenal finale to our four years here at Lake Zurich High School. And finally, the year we all realized Friday came after Thursday, but before Saturday and Sunday. And so after four years of experiences that have showed us both our weaknesses but also our strengths, that have defined our characters and capabilities, and that have outlined our goals and dreams for the future, I think I can speak for everyone when I say “we are who we are.”  So, thank you Lake Zurich High School for all the memories and for this soundtrack. And as each and every one of us looks back on all that’s been accomplished and all the memories that have been made, I think we can all conclude, in the words of Chris Brown, “Look at me now, I’m gettin paper.”


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