From our neighbor to the north, a heart-warming story of the nerd striking back. Andrew Ironside, an unpopular, bookish, unathletic high school senior in Ontario, was elected valedictorian by his classmates, who thought it would be funny to put him in the spotlight. A classmate introduced him at the ceremony by saying cruelly, "I'm pretty happy to say I've spent time with almost all of you. Sadly to say, Andrew is not really included in this group of people. The truth is, I really barely know him." To the laughter of classmates, he mouthed the right platitudes ("we came as strangers, we leave as friends") for a few minutes, then crumpled up his remarks, tossed them aside, and announced, "You know, a lot of you were jerks." Well said. We suspect that Mr. Ironside will be just fine.
"Truth about high school," by Siri Agrell, National Post, December 27, 2003