WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Mount Greylock Regional School sent 67 graduates off with diplomas and a cap toss on Saturday. 

 

The seniors queued up to enter the school gym with "Pomp and Circumstance" and scattered out the doors to "Choose Joy." 

 

It was the choices to be present that had gotten the Mounties to this day, said William Apotsos, whom the class had selected as their graduating speaker. "They didn't just decide to be present, they refused to be absent."

 

When one little girl had thanked him for being there to referee a youth soccer game, it drove "home the importance of not only being present but refusing to be absent," he said. 

 

Being present had been difficult in the transition between remote learning during the pandemic and returning to the school, when the class had to figure out how to be present together — physically, mentally and socially. 

 

"There is always the safe route. Stick to what you know, stick around people you know, and never really leave your metaphorical shell that you built up over your time at home. ... Then there was the more dangerous: put yourself out there, embrace your impact option,"  Apotsos said. 

 

"It's very much a red pill and blue pill situation, and what I am most proud of, that pretty much every single person on this stage took the red pill. They chose to embrace the unexpected and decide that they wouldn't let a couple years of isolation determine who they were going to be."