Why Y?

Today in lit, we were talking about courage. And I was diligently taking notes, keeping up with the lecture, and even managing to come up with my own thoughts about courage somewhere in there, when it all came to a screetching halt. I found myself writing the word "courageous". Which is, by any means, a struggle. I mean, look at it. Its flippin 10 letters long, which might not be a big deal, other than that 6 of those letters are vowels.
So this got me thinking.
We can all recall back to about the 4th grade when we had to memorize the vowels. We all know them-- A,E,I,O,U. But how many were taught Y as a vowel? Personally I was taught it as more of a "half-way" vowel.
"A,E,I,O,U and sometimes Y"
Can I ask what Y ever did to deserve this "half-way" or sometimes not at all status?? All it ever did was make words like "why" work.
So from now on, please- think about all those times you felt a little "end of the alphabet-ish". Because Y doesn't have it hard enough.
I declare Y an official vowel, right now, at 3:40 pm on October 5th, 2005.

Somebody call Webster.