Canaan
The ceremony, held in the Cardigan Mountain School’s athletic arena, had all the excitement of a sports event, with spectators cheering, whooping and using air horns and cowbells. Seating was available for 900 people, according to the fire department, and well over a hundred stood in the wings.
“This is one of the best classes, maybe one of the top three that I’ve experienced,” Principal James Collins said in his address to the 92-member class, who sat on the edges of their seats in purple and white.
The crowd applauded appreciatively, and then burst into cheers and whoops as he added: “And I can tell you that after spending the day with you guys, you’re definitely No. 1!”
Class President Benjamin Jones kept the sports metaphor going with a quotation he attributed to the boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who died this month: “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
The keynote speaker, business teacher Shawn Joyce, offered another gem from Ali: “Don’t count the days. Make the days count.”
“Your future starts today,” he told the Class of 2016. “Are you ready?”
He waited for an answer, then repeated, “Are you ready?”
“Yea!” screamed a class member, and the crowd roared.
Cheers were especially long and loud for Rachael Piotte, this year’s valedictorian, who thanked her family, her classmates and her teachers for supporting her achievement.
In preparing her speech, Piotte said, she had learned that the word “valedictorian” came from a Latin root meaning to bid farewell.
“After today, very few of us will ever see each other again,” said Piotte, who is headed to school in Pennsylvania, as she wiped her eyes.
“From this moment on, a world of opportunity is open to us,” she said. “Find what makes you want to get up in the morning. Find the spark, the fire that makes you want to be alive. … If you hold on to that fire, it can take you to great places.”
Salutatorian “Winnie” Ching Wing Cheng gave her classmates tips for the challenges they’ll face along the way: For internal conflicts, she said, search yourself for the answer; for external ones, “never give up.”
If you can do this, she told the class, “you can look back and say with a smile, ‘It was a good story.’ ”
A moment of levity came as the seniors received their diplomas: Kimble Veasey, as he accepted his degree from Collins, plopped an odd-looking object on the principal’s head.
It was a hat in the shape of a giant hamburger.
“Kimble calls me ‘Hamburger Man,’ ” Collins said by way of explanation. “I call him ‘Pizza Man.’ ”
“I have a special hat that I’ll deliver to your house personally,” he added.
As the graduating seniors digested the life lessons and philosophical musings they received on Friday evening, Collins offered a few bite-sized, pragmatic pieces of advice.
Always have enough money for gas, he told them. Never underestimate what your mother knows.
And one more thing, he said: “Hold on to your yearbooks.
“It gets funnier and funnier as the years pass.”
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.
Andrea Rae-Elizabeth Bailey, New England School of Hair Design; Dylan Jonathan Bailey, Workforce; Amber Lynn Baker, Husson University; Pascal Sebastian Bakker, Wentworth Institute of Technology; Bryan Kevin Barrile Jr., New Hampshire Technical Institute; Felicia Marie Baslow, Workforce; Jeremy James Scott Batten, University of New Hampshire; Matthew Tylor Berry, NHTI; Sera Rae Boisvert, River Valley Community College; Allen Roy Boivin, Workforce; Oscar James Brueckner, Colby Sawyer College; Kestin Lee Bunnell, Keene State College; Camden Wells Burnette, Keene State College; Phillip Charles Bushey, Workforce; Connor Francis Cadreact, NHTI; Ching Wing Cheng, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Josephine Emily Christian, Workforce; Benjamin James Clifford, RVCC; Mikayla Louise Clifford, UNH; Ashlynne Elaine Collins, Keene State College; Emaline Sylvia Conkey, UNH; Nicole Lauren Crate, Plymouth State University; Hunter Tylo Davis, Workforce; Jordan Thomas DeFord, Workforce; Don Michael Donker, United States Marine Corps; Madison Caroline Dow, Keene State College; Lindsay Elaine Dugan, Workforce; Hunter Brown Duranleau, Workforce; Fredrick Robert Emery, Workforce; Andrew Cole Farrell, RVCC; Jeighsyn Dupont Fellers, Manchester Community College; Christian William Gelinas, Vermont National Guard; Rachael Ann Getman, PSU; Conner Johannes Gill, RVCC; Cailey Frances Gunn, Workforce; Tyler James Hammond, Workforce; Alton Ray Hennessy, Lakes Region Community College; Noah John Hewes, Workforce; Cameron Wayne Hill, United States Army; Tyler Cristian Hollis, Workforce; Aiko Dai Hossler, RVCC; Patrick Thomas Howard, Southern Maine Community College; Matthew Phillip Howe, Workforce; Benjamin Kevin Hurley, Workforce; Meghan Miranda Jacobs, Workforce; Amy Marie Johnson, Workforce; Benjamin Leith Jones, Colby Sawyer College; Rachel Morrissa Kahn, UNH; Mason Langston Kairnes, RVCC; Jessica Francis Kelley, Hartwick College; Brianna Leigh Kendall, Workforce; Gabrielle Tersea Marie Kinnett, Workforce; Peter Gaillard Knox, Keene State College; Braeden Mountain Kulbacki, Workforce; Julia Isabel Labine, RVCC; Graeme Toryn Lambert, UNH; Maryssa Arin Loati, Workforce; Serena Grace Lyman, UNH; Dakota Michelle Lyon, UNH; William Wayne Mackey, Northwest Railroad Institute; Benjamin Ellis Makalinaw, Keene State College; William Jay Alexander Morrison, Franklin Pierce University; Barrett Thomas Morse, UNH; Dylan James Mulherin, Electrician Apprenticeship/Workforce; Noah Ryan Nelson, Workforce; James Allen Partridge, Summit University; Jada Lynne Pequita, RVCC; Rachael Autumn Piotte, Arcadia University; Alaina Noel Pringle, UNH; Ethan Scott Purington, Workforce; Dakotah Jaye Richardson, New England School of Hair Design; Kenneth Francis Severance-Camp, UNH; Natalie Marie Simano, New England School of Hair Design; Jacob Randall Sousa, Keene State College; Taylor Lynn Southland, NHTI; Anthony Michael Sperry, Southern New Hampshire University; Tabitha Ann Stanley, Workforce; Cody Lee Stephenson, Workforce; William Spencer Stone, PSU; Mason Jon Sweet, Marshall University; Emilie Anne Taylor, RVCC; Ryan Milton Teffner, New Hampshire Technical College; Kailey Olivean Thompson, RVCC; Morgan Rae Tupper, Keene State College; Kimble Winston Veasey, Workforce; Michelle Colleen Way, Workforce; Charles Alvin Weeks, Lakes Region Community College; Brandon Michael Oliver White, United States Army; Tristan Fox Williams, Workforce; Calvin James Wilson, Lakes Region Community College; Alexander Thomas Withington, Colby Sawyer College.