Pirate Deco's Reflection
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Writing this speech has been the most difficult task in my life thus far, but when you think about it, it really doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what I say in this speech, because....
This speech isn't CTYI. It's just a few minutes of reflection from some muppet who thinks he's a pirate.
CTYI is what you put into it, and more importantly, what you get back from it: The friends we make, the adventures we have. It's the spoon bracelets, playing Nutsac, wearing a dressing gown on Thursday, having the same roommate for 3 years in a row by chance, by coincidence or by choice. It's going to the botanics as a tennis club. It would be a Points Game if such a thing existed. It's even disregarding all of that and doing what you want, and that's just as awesome too.
CTYI is for me like Hogwarts is to Harry, a haven for the socially awkward and an escape for those who are sick of conforming ("and gingers" - Dermot). CTYI is a place where your choices aren't questioned, but accepted and your views are heard without judgement. CTYI means a lot of things to a lot of people and to me only one word fits the bill: home. No other place on the planet is as unique as where we are right now and I think we sometimes forget this. Where else on earth will you hear the Pokémon theme tune played at a disco? No-one thinks the Pokémon theme is strange at our disco. Can you think of any other place where the teenagers value the state of the EU, or the words of Plato, over Lady Gaga's latest music video or Justin Bieber's haircut? How many places offer happiness at a consistent level, without profit being its main aim? Now how many of these places succeed, apart from us.
I urge each and every one of you to take home with you the outlook of joy CTYI gives you. Don't allow your bliss to be limited to 3 weeks of the year. I know this is possible, because after 7 years of looking forward to my next dosage of the DCU campus, I finally have to wean myself from this, and I've had to move on with life. But believe me, I've left the Pirate prefix in good hands. My protegé Mark Dee will allow the residential pirate tradition to live on many years after all of us, and I'm counting on each of you to help keep the traditions alive in any way you can.
I've seen so many strange and wonderful things over the last 4 years and so much has changed in so many ways. The friends I've made here are, as Colm says at every opening speech, the friends you keep for life. And believe me, he's not lying. I value you people above anyone else and that's not about to change. I hope each and every one of you feel the same happiness for the force that is CTYI and carry that into whatever life choices you make. The force of CTYI wouldn't be here at all without everyone remotely involved, from Colm, to the RAs, from the ARCs, to the TAs, our instructors, all site office staff and faculty, DCU campus and even the canteen staff and Suit Nazi - to be honest, their food has been improving in quality over the last few years.
Finally, I'd like to extend my gratitude to you, the students, the people who make the 'T' for smart, the people CTYI changes for the better. And I ask all of you one final thing: that you never let it be the day that the music dies. Allow this be the end, as Ben Murphy put it to me last night, of an awesome chapter in an even more awesome book.
This is Pirate Declan, signing out and may the force be with all of you.
