The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
132 grads ‘revel in the moment’
High-schoolers take leave of new building
EAST HAMPTON » They went out in style.
Having endured two years of near-continuous construction, the members of the Class of 2017 graduated from East Hampton High School — in East Hampton High School.
Which meant holding the ceremony in ... the air-conditioned school auditorium. Until the renovation of the school, there was no such thing as air conditioning in the auditorium, which made it a place best avoided in summertime. Not so on Monday, however.
And equally fortuitous, schools officials moved the ceremony inside.
The original intent was to hold proceedings outdoors. But in the face of the uncertain forecasts Monday, the decision was made to err on the side of caution. That judgement was rewarded as the band of storms that raged across the state made their presence felt, with sheets of rain periodically drumming on the auditorium roof during the ceremony.
Through it all, the 132 graduates were serene in their white robes for women and blue for men as they waited for the moment when they transitioned from students to graduates. In the meantime, the soonto-be graduates gathered in the remodeled library/media center to wait their moment in the spotlight.
This fall, Abby Conklin heads off to the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston to study to become an illustrator. Monday, she said, “It’s been a tough four years here.”
But, Conklin quickly added, “Our art teacher is fantastic! But we could use more arts-related funding.”
And then there was Signe Lee — who has already been in college. Having finished her freshman year at the University of Southern California, Lee was back in East Hampton to graduate with her high school class.
Lee, who is majoring in communications with the intention of becoming a lawyer, finished high school in three years. “They said I could come back for graduation, so I said, ‘Sure, why not?’” Lee said.
Lee may have taken the ceremony seriously but not herself. In the company of many of her classmates, Lee decorated the top of her mortarboard with miniature palm trees and pineapples (a sign of good luck).
The statement on her mortarboard read: “I may have taken senior skip day a little too far.”
Lee said college was “very challenging,” but quickly added, “I’ve had a good time and definitely have learned a lot.”
“There was definitely a lot going on” with the construction at the school, part of the $51 million renovation and expansion program, senior Madison Roberts said. “But it turned out very well and the front looks great.”
Looking back at high school, Roberts said, “It’s been a great experience, a great four years.”
This fall, Roberts is off to Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, to study business, with an eye on a career “in either marketing or finance.”
Nearby, Nicholas Claude stood calmly and quietly, taking in the mounting excitement. He will enroll at the University of West Virginia in the fall to study forensics, hoping to eventually take a job in law enforcement, with “either the police or the FBI.”
Claude has also enrolled in ROTC, and so will owe the Army eight years upon graduation: three years on active duty, the remaining five years in the Ready Reserve.
And then it was time for Claude and his classmates to file into the auditorium.
Led by the their teachers — and Class Marshal Emma Cook — the members of the class of 2017 were engulfed in a wave of sustained applause and any number of whoops, varying cries of joy and excitement.
Waiting for them were excited parents like Thomas and Gabriella Crean, father and mother of graduate Caroline J. Crean.
Dad admitted the ceremony was “bittersweet.”
“I am very proud of her but — she is still my little girl,” he said.
“It’s been a bit surreal,” Gabriella Crean said, admitting both she and Caroline “have run the gamut of emotions.”
When she was 20, Gabriella Crean wanted to live in New York City. But then, when she was pregnant with Caroline, she and her husband looked around for something smaller, including in East Hampton. And when they did, “I knew I wanted to raise my kids in this small town — and I’m so glad I did,” she said.
“To grow up in such a good community — as a mom, I’m super proud,” she said.
Life in East Hampton was something valedictorian Lap Hei Lam came to value as well. The child of Asian immigrants was raised in a tough project in New York. “It was not the best place to grow up,” he said.
But when he first came to East Hampton, Lam wasn’t sure it would be a good fit for him either. “I often felt like an alien and I was afraid I was not going to like this place,” he said in an address to his class.
But his classmates were both “energetic and welcoming,” Lam said, virtues that “are what makes this class so great.
“The setting is just as essential as the people are,” he continued. “So don’t ever forget where you came from and don’t forget to have fun,” he said. “Revel in the moment: It only comes once.” As the students pre-
pared to take their leave of the school, Principal John Fidler urged the graduates to continue to “make great things happen.”
Then, once again following their teachers as they have for the past four years, the graduates left the auditorium. First the teachers and then the graduates rang the school bell, one of the must-do events of any East Hampton graduation.
Having honored the tradition, the former students then filed down a hallway where the entire faculty waited to shake their hands and congratulate the class of 2017.