The class has lived in a constant countdown, valedictorian Brayden Canales said to his classmates and the audience gathered in the school auditorium for graduation exercises on Thursday night. 

 

"We have always been looking ahead, waiting for the next week's thing. If you look around this room right now, you may not realize it, but the clock has stopped. The countdown is over for the last time. Our stories, laughter, victories, and struggles are all under this one roof," he said. "Behind us is everything we've known, the routines that kept us safe, and the community that shaped us ahead is a blank canvas. It is terrifying, yet exciting."

 

Looking back, Canales said, they might not remember dates and bullet points, but they will remember the exhaustion, the cold lobby, the sudden energy in the gym, the jokes, the shared glances and know when the pressure got tense, they had each other — and the families that dragged them out of bed and the staff who greeted them a the doors.

 

The class didn't survive the last four years to "coast into the next year," he continued. 

 

"We are not here to inherit the future. We're here to build it, but when you go far away to face new challenges, you stay here and pour energy into the places that raise you, do it with everything you have. Leave a mark so deep that it cannot be erased," Canales said. "Do not go quietly, run, take big risks, draw your own place, build your own paths, and build a life that makes the world stop and take a breath. Class of 2026 the clock is ticking, so let's go make yours count."

 

Jayden Vandesteene, class president, welcomed the gathering and led the Pledge of Allegiance, Jack Kavanaugh read the class poem, Hollyann Field presented the yearbook dedication to guidance counselor Jaime Hamilton, and the Drury band performed the processional, the national anthem and "Mechanical Monster." 

 

The students were also presented with academic awards and scholarships.

 

Salutatorian Carson Rylander touched on the experience of growing up in a small area, and seeing the same people time and again. 

 

"Sometimes it feels boring because you never experience anything difficult. But looking back, I think that's exactly what made my time in high school so special," he said. "Growing up in a place like the Berkshires, you don't just go to school with the same people, you grow up with them, you spend your entire life alongside them, and over time, those people become more than classmates. They become family."

 

The classmates built friendships in small moments — bus rides, practices, laughing at lunch tables. He relayed advice from his coach, about how you never know when you're about to break through to something important and to keep digging even when things get difficult. It was a lesson he applied to sports but also to school, friendship and life. 

 

"There will be times when things feel repetitive, difficult, or even pointless, but often those are the moments that lead to something greater. You just can't see the other side yet," Rylander sad. "Appreciate the people around you, appreciate the everyday routines, and realize that even a small place like ours will build something that feels much bigger than it appears. Because in the end, it won't be the biggest moments that we remember the most, it'll be the people we share them with, and the memories we create together."

 

Superintendent Timothy Callahan, noting his first graduation as superintendent, reminded the class that he'd been principal when they class first entered the middle school at Drury. But, they didn't see each other for 295 school days after the pandemic shut the school down in their eighth grade year. 

 

"It was weird, and we all figured out together. Yet somehow during that time of uncertainty and fear, you emerged as leaders, family, friends, colleagues. This class of 2026 is special, they helped Drury figure out its own identity emerging from the pandemic," he said, because they were part of so many changes in the school — from Zoom classes to early college, from Innovation Pathways to paid elementary school internships and, of course, varsity volleyball.

 

"What matters most is that throughout all the challenges, you didn't give up on you, and you didn't give up on us. You chose to thrive with so many arts, of course, academics, in your personal interests, in your extracurricular pursuits, in your jobs, and most importantly, in your kindness and your compassion for others." 

 

Principal Stephanie Kopala said the class had already shown who they were — ambitious and eager for opportunities. Some 74 percent of the class had completed at least one college course, and in total, had already earned 428 college credits. That translated to a savings of $209,000 in higher education cost. Nearly half the class had completed 100 hours of internships.

 

The diplomas were presented by Kopala, Callahan and Mayor Jennifer Macksey, who after the all the diplomas were in hand, was cheered when she was ready to let them go.

 

They couldn't measure the service they'd given the community, and their teachers, role models, parents and guardians had kind of molded them into what they are now, she  said. "As you leave here tonight, I challenge you to find your new way of your own way ... you're the one, you're the teacher-leader for the rest of your life, and on behalf of the City of North Adams and the North Adams School Committee, I wish you all the best in whatever you do. ... remember, once you're a blue devil, you always bleed blue."

 

With that, the stage was filled with cheers and confetti and the class of 2026 exited the stage.