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GRANBY – Gratitude and the multiple meanings of the word life were topics of speeches given Saturday morning as 70 Granby High School seniors received their diplomas.
Class president Hailey O’Connor thanked the parents of the class of 2016 for being their children’s biggest supporters. She also thanked the teachers “who cared so much about us and our education.”
Salutatorian Nicole Hamel, who will be going to Western New England University in the fall to study education, similarly told the graduating class and their guests that “friends, teachers and most importantly family helped shape who we are today.” Her most vivid memories of high school, she said, would be those that were filled with laughter.
Hope Shaw, who will be attending Worcester State University in the fall to study nursing, was the valedictorian. She noted the “bittersweet” quality of ending what she calculated to be 1,360,800 minutes of high school.
She told her class that they are ready to tackle whatever life throws at them, but warned against complacency. She punctuated her remarks with a quote from American humorist Will Rogers: “Even if you are on the right track you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
The featured speaker for the occasion, chosen by the students, was biology teacher Kathleen O’Goley. She offered the students one last lesson on seven different meanings of the word “life.”
One is that it is the quality that distinguishes a vital, functional being from a dead body. Even though she and her fellow teachers had at times seen “zombie faces and blank stares” in the classroom, “when the bell rang, we found that they were still alive when they ran to the door,” she said of the students. She encouraged them to embrace vitality.
O’Goley also encouraged each graduate “to be a catalyst in this world.” Beyond that, she told them to appreciate nature. Not only the butterflies and daisies, “but even the camels.”
Another definition of life, she said, “is the period between birth and death.” The lesson there is “to embrace each change that comes your way,” she said.
O’Goley left the students with an assignment: “As you walk out those doors, go and find love, happiness and peace in your lives.”