Hoosac Valley Sends 80 Off to Make Their Mark on the World
CHESHIRE, Mass. — Hoosac Valley High School graduates on Friday night were asked to look back before stepping forward.
After the 80 seniors — each holding a purple carnation — marched into the gymnasium to take their seats, valedictorian Jenna Charron congratulated her fellow classmates and asked them to reflect on their time at Hoosac.
"I'd like to congratulate everyone sitting up here. We have survived high school. It certainly wasn't like the 'High School Musical' experience I was expecting but we made it," she said. "We made it past the days of being annoying freshmen and grew into seniors who complained about the annoying eighth-graders because 'we weren't that bad.' "
Charron told her classmates they have the potential to accomplish anything and said she was excited to see what the future will bring to the class of 2018.
"High school is just a minuscule part of our lives, and there is so much more out there for us to experience," she said. "We will all experience failures along the way and we will also succeed along the way too ... so take risks and don't be afraid of failure. If we do this, we will make our mark on the world."
Graduate Adam Bush lead a moment of silence for classmate Kaliq Sherman, who was killed in a car accident one year ago at the age of 17.
He said the class of 2018 is ready to embark on the next chapter of their lives.
"We have all gathered here today to celebrate the end of one chapter of our lives and the beginning of the next. For some of this will include risking our lives as we defend our freed in the armed forces and for others, this next chapter will include risking our livers as we attend colleges and universities in the fall," he said. "And for the others, they will be entering the great American workforce to keep this nation running as smoothly as it should."
Although their diploma marks the completion of their high school education, Bush said, there is something much more to it than just what they learned in class.
"You learn a lot more in high school than just an education and curriculum. You learn life lessons ... and I think these are some of the more important things in life," Bush said. "This is what I find is the most important thing about a high school education it is about developing a mindset for success later on in life."
Bush said although he can't read the future, he knows his fellow classmates have picked up on these important life lessons and listed the successes of various sports teams, clubs, the theater, band and other members that he thought made the class of 2018 one to remember.
Before ending his address, he asked for one more Hoosac cheer before graduating.
The diplomas were presented by School Committee Chairman Paul Butler and the new graduates celebrated the completion of their high school career with bursts of confetti.
Before the ceremony's completion, salutatorian Samantha Sherwood read off a definition of "salutatorian" that she found on the internet. "The smart kid who stayed up way too late studying, drank enough coffee to kill a camel and missed so many parties that everyone thought that they were a hermit only to get second place," she recited.
She walked her classmates back through their first experiences at Hoosac Valley and said even though they may look back at themselves as freshmen and "cringe" tonight they are looking toward the future.
"Tonight, we commemorate the victories of each and every youthful face joining my side as we stride through the doors of our futures. Tonight truly marks not only the end but the beginning," she said. "We will be going on to the workforce, the military college. We leave behind an education system we complained about for four years to move on to a similar system, except now we will pay thousands of dollars to attend."
Sherwood went on to say a few thank-yous and reminisced about the "red and white-ish halls" of Hoosac Valley, the warm greetings from teachers and "clumps of socializing eighth graders" that they really wanted to "bulldoze through."
Sherwood left her classmates with an analogy.
"High school is like a lollipop. It looks sweet from the outside, it takes forever to get through after a lot of licking," she said. "It sucks until the end, but overall you will miss it when it's gone"
Editor's note: The flowers held by the graduates were purple, not red as originally described in this article. They were held in memory of Kaliq Sherman.
Tags: graduation 2018, HVHS,
