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Girard grads step into future
GIRARD
The gym at Girard High School was filled with anticipation Sunday.
One hundred twenty seniors were ready to go. They were leaving Girard behind, but, as every speaker at the podium pointed out to them, the day was not about an ending. It was about a beginning.
Their futures were beginning that day, with the move of a tassel from one side of a mortarboard to the other.
“How great or turbulent your achievements, they will become your history,” said Superintendent David Cappuzzello.
“The power is in your hands, and they will become your legacy,” he continued. “The future is yours to design as you wish. Make it a great one.”
“We all have enduring memories,” said Richard Reese, board of education president. “But we call this ceremony ‘commencement,’ which means ‘a start, a beginning.’”
“Understand that life is precious, and you have no business taking it for granted,” he said. “It’s no longer the world of your parents, or Mr. Reese ... or any other Girard experience. It’s your world.”
“Foremost in importance is the life and love you give to others,” he continued. “Be a good son or daughter, brother or sister. Be a best friend ... and a good community member.
“Learn to love, honor and respect. Be happy. Be generous. Lift people up instead of bringing them down.
“It’s your world,” he concluded. “Go out and take it, and enjoy it. As you walk up here, do so with pride, but also with the knowledge that you have many more steps to take.”
“It’s hard to say goodbye, however. A new journey is about to begin full of amazing possibilities,” said valedictorian Brooke Hunkus after they received their diplomas.
Where are some of them going? Shelby Harper, who studied animal science at Trumbull County Career and Technical Center, is moving to St. Petersburg, Fla., in a few days. She’ll check out several colleges there, she said.
“I want to work in an aquarium or a pet store,” she said.
Mallory Byers is not going very far geographically – she’ll start at Youngstown State University in the fall. But a journey is not always about covering physical ground. Mallory’s beginning hers toward a nursing degree.
And Andrew Guerrieri’s first journey out of Girard is going to take him to the Pittsburgh Technical Institute, where he’ll study computer programming.
“Henry David Thoreau said, ‘Go confidently in the direction of your dreams,’” Brooke said. “It is up to us to move on. We stand on the edge of a new journey. Might you have the courage to pursue your dreams.”
Mackenzie Olesky, class president, said that people get out of life what they put into it.
“Don’t go through life asking, ‘What if?,’” she said, “Just go out and do it.”
Mackenzie then told the graduates to move their tassels from one side of their mortarboards to the other.
“From this moment on, we begin our new lives,” she said.