SHARON — The Sharon Academy’s 17 seniors bid farewell to their high school days on Saturday afternoon at a graduation ceremony in the school gymnasium, which attracted around 150 guests.
As the typically small class size each year allows, Sharon seniors each gave a short speech reflecting on their high school careers and what’s next. Between expressions of gratitude, stories of memories, metaphors, pop culture quotes, reflections on their own personal growth, and some tears, each student’s speech imparted a unique and special message.
Senior Ever Herzig Tofel couldn’t fathom beginning to write his graduation speech until after the last day of school, he said, because leaving and moving on was so hard to come to terms with. His teachers and classmates’ comments in his yearbook crystallized how difficult the next step will be, which includes studying across the country at the University of Oregon.
“The last reason I want to leave is all of you,” he said. “Every day since freshman year, this place is the place I’ve been the happiest.”
Several graduates commented on how they didn’t necessarily take school very seriously until they found a reason to value their time as a student at TSA.
“When I look back on everything I’ve done in high school, I think about a lot of things I did and achieved, but I also think about the things I didn’t do,” Jaxon Nichols said.
While a student at TSA, Nichols decided to step out of his comfort zone and try basketball and track, something different than his usual involvement with the soccer team.
“I learned more from track than I have learned from any other sport,” he said.
“I set goals for myself” and “I (worked) harder every single day,” he added.
Nichols won 2nd place in track finals this year and 2nd place in a 100-meter dash by 1/100th of a second, and he made 1st place in a couple of other races.
“Nothing (has) ever felt better than accomplishing all of my goals,” he said.
Daniel Henderson said he didn’t like TSA that much and that he’d considered transferring to another school last summer yet he found himself onstage wearing a green graduation gown with his Sharon classmates on Saturday.
“The idea of graduating here wasn’t really in my head anymore,” he said.
After a chat with his soccer coach, Henderson decided to stay to finish out high school in Sharon. Now, he’s glad he stayed in TSA’s small and caring community, “a community where everyone knows each other’s names,” he said.
Eve Huntington shared a candid story about her struggle with mental health during her speech.
“Change has been incredibly apparent since I’ve been here,” she said. “When I became a student at the Sharon Academy in the fall of 2019, I was not the person that I am now.”
Huntington wasn’t confident in her own skin, she said, and struggled with her emotional health to the point where she ultimately found herself in the emergency room and a psychiatric ward for 20 days last year.
Her healing journey is not over yet; “I need to keep learning to love myself,” she said.
Earlier in the ceremony, Head of School Mary Newman awarded graduate Amber Boles a $6,000 Frank M. and Olive F. Gilman Foundation Scholarship, one of around 60 that are given out each year. Graduate Riley Eastman won the “Athlete of the Year” award.
Newman hugged each graduate after their speech and later presented the graduates to the audience, who tossed their caps into the air as Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana began to play for the recessional.
The Class of 2022 lined up in the gym to form a receiving wall where they accepted congratulations, hugs and gifts from their family and friends.
Rose Terami can be reached at rosoterami@gmail.com.
Riley Eastman; Jaxon Nichols; Ever Herzig Tofel; Izaak Xander Gokey; Alix Sheldon Livingston; Mary Gage Donohue; Hattie Chapman Byrne; Jack Stuart Brandon; Jamie Potter; Amber Boles; Daniel Henderson; George Elliott Yunger; Eve Huntington; Brandy Lewis; Elliot Tonks; Leah Holmes; and Mausi McCrory.