Bethel
Brooks credits his academic success to his tendency to work efficiently, regardless of subject.
“I do everything shorthand; I abbreviate notes; I just do everything quickly,” he said in an interview on Wednesday morning. “I was able to do more work in less time.”
Brooks aspires to become a lawyer, a profession that would allow him to further his lifelong interest in debate. “I’ve argued plenty of times that we shouldn’t take tests,” he joked. “It never works.”
A crowd of several hundred parents, siblings, friends and other relations gathered in Whitcomb’s gymnasium on Friday night to celebrate the high school careers of Brooks and the 21 other members of the Class of 2017. An anthropomorphic green hornet, painted in 1987, more than a decade before any of these teenagers were born, observed the proceedings from a mural on the room’s eastern wall.
Salutatorian Arianne Conde, the first to speak at the ceremony, reflected on the experience of attending such a small school.
“Drama spreads like wildfire,” Conde said. Yet, she counted herself lucky to have been part of such a tight-knit class, many of whose members met in kindergarten. “A lot of people don’t have the Bethel, Vermont experience of knowing their best friends their entire lives,” she said.
Conde plans to attend the University of Vermont, which awarded her a full-tuition Green and Gold Scholarship. She closed her speech by urging her peers to “go make interesting, glorious, fantastic mistakes.”
Self-described “class clown” Justin Cassidy spoke on Friday night as well, his cap adorned with the phrase “For Those Who Doubted” in block letters. He praised his classmates for their perseverance and reminisced about a class whale-watching trip and other excursions.
“I guess when you come to the end you think back to the beginning,” Cassidy said. He proceeded to recall when, in second grade, “we were all the same height as Isaac,” referring to Isaac Hodgdon, whose teenage self towered over his fellow graduates on Friday night.
These students’ development, from bright-eyed elementary schoolers into independent adults, was a common theme of the various tributes school staff and community members paid the graduating class.
Janet Brown, Whitcomb High’s administrative assistant, quoted Dr. Seuss in encouraging the Class of 2017 to make the most of their post-graduate lives: “You’re off to great places; today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!”
The teenagers’ camaraderie was on full display as they cheered one another during the presentation of awards and diplomas, and as they recessed to the tune of Matchbox Twenty’s How Far We’ve Come.
Even as vocalist Rob Thomas belted the incongruous line “I believe the world is burning to the ground,” the graduates beamed, reveling in their accomplishment.
Gabe Brison-Trezise can be reached at g.brisontrezise@gmail.com.
Whitcomb Class of 2017
Cory Abbott, gap year; Neil Brooks, Community College of Vermont; Willy Carr, work; Justin Cassidy, Johnson State College; Arianne Conde, University of Vermont; Melany Davis-Velarde, work/gap year; Zakery Gillette, Castleton University; Alex Gray, Johnson State; Isaac Hodgdon, White Mountains Community College; Molly LaFromboise, Bentley University; Emily Messier, work/gap year; Abban Morse, work/gap year; Nick Paradis, work; Austin Pellegrino, Lyndon State; Marcus Sheldon, U.S. Coast Guard; Gwen Timmins, Plymouth State University; Ryan Upham, work; Laura Vaillancourt, Johnson State; Liam Walker, work; Taylor Washburn, plumbing apprenticeship; Ambrose Wigglesworth, Norwich University; Amanda Yon, Johnson State; Rebecca Yon, Vermont Technical College.