TIME TO GRADUATE
Shen Class of 2019 told to go out and create who you want to be
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.
>> The speakers at the Shenendehowa High School commencement Thursday may have varied their words a bit, but the message to the members of the Class of 2019 was clear—now is the time to go out and create who it is you want to be.
The large suburban high school graduated 785 students at a packed Saratoga Performing Arts Center on a cloudless, hot, and humid day where spoken words irrigated the mind and heat dried the throat.
For many students lining up under the trees at the top of the amphitheater’s slope, this was a time of realization; their Shen years would end shortly. Though they may have been thinking about it all year long, the time had come to say goodbye to a school system in which most felt very comfortable.
Class of 2019 member Jackson Hengsterman came prepared for the heat with three bottles of water. He will attend SUNY at Binghamton in the fall where he plans to study Philosophy, Politics and Law. The Shen graduate has his sights set on be
coming a public defender.
“Not to get too political, but I think the justice system is biased and unfair and I’d like to make a change in it,” he said while lining up for the processional.
As the Shen High School Wind Ensemble struck the first notes of the day to signal the start of the ceremony, Hengsterman was asked his feelings about graduation.
“It’s a mix of liberating and terrifying,” he said. “I’m happy to get out, but I’ll miss the community.”
On the other side of the hilltop staging area, four senior class members posed for a photograph and were asked their feelings on graduating high school.
“It’s a mix of emotions,” said Jake Amell. “It’s the next chapter in our life.”
“I’m happy and sad,” said James Altenburger. “College will probably be fun, but you won’t see a lot of these guys ever again.”
Catherine Almeida was the most eager of the four to open a new chapter in her life.
“I’m excited. I’m leaving for college, Quinnipiac, in a week,” she said. “I’m going to major in physical therapy and play on the basketball team.”
Once graduation got underway, it didn’t take long for the speakers to remind their fellow class members how quickly the time had flown by.
In the ceremony’s opening reflections, Class of 2019 President Dallas Jones recalled how it seemed like just yesterday he had been racing on his bike with his friends to be the first in line to get a slushy. Then he turned serious.
“Each and every one of you has the ability to change the world in some way,” Jones said. “You all have the ability to make the world a better place as long as you put forth the effort. Be true to yourself and don’t let others make decisions for you.”
In her salutatory address, Courtney Golden viewed the world that the graduates were entering as a playground and their Shen diploma as the key to that playground. Life, she said, is not about finding your place, but creating your place.
“Today marks the culmination of our Shenendehowa journey and the beginning of the rest of our lives,” she said. “As you start the next chapter in your life, what kind of person do you want to become? We are at a unique time in our lives because we can create ourselves and our future. When we leave this amphitheater today, the world is ours to explore, and we can choose to go anywhere, do anything, and be any kind of person we want to be.”
Class of 2019 valedictorian, Emily Wang, passed along a valuable lesson she had learned on her own to not be occupied with one’s past or future, but rather, concentrate on staying in the present.
“I realized the past was out of my control, and I decided that I needed to focus on the present and what I can control,” she said. “In the next few years we’ll all make our fair share of awful decisions and we will suffer the consequences. For me, it’s more important to focus on the present because life is not a possibility; life is now. Today, celebrate graduation without fear of the future or regret and take each day of the rest of your life day by day.”
School Superintendent L. Oliver Robinson gave the class a final send-off with words from the heart that mixed fatherly advice, real-world experience and quotes from Robert F. Kennedy and James Baldwin, with principles found in scripture.
“Graduates, your continued success calls for each of you to gird up with the armor of courage and the sharp sword of conviction,” he said. “In other words, be bold, be confident, be resolute in your actions, and be motivated by a sincere sense of hope and hopefulness.
“Claim, proclaim, declare, decree, and cement your place in the history of your days through your actions. Be the difference makers that illuminate the path for a brighter future.
“Class of 2019, the world needs more compassion, more concern for the good of all, more caring about the human condition, more respect and appreciation for the tapestry of difference, more love and less hate, more harmony and less divisiveness; more simple kindness. Class of 2019, go face the world with your eyes wide open. The possibilities are boundless and success is limitless. Each day, show up for life.”