Friendship’s Bonds Shall Ne’er Be Broken
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| The Class of 2015 emerges from behind Martin Meylin |
About 10 minutes before graduation was set to commence, the
Class of 2015 emerged from the crest of the hill beyond Martin Meylin, processing one final
time as a class before lives of independence took root. An audience much
larger than some expected thanks to weather’s cooperation observed as the
class filed into its seats, ushered in by the L-S String Ensemble’s rendition
of the venerable Pomp and Circumstance.
Student speaker Julia Weigel opened the ceremony by
humorously recounting the seniors’ 311,320 minutes of high school … in about
four minutes and 54 seconds. She commended the students’ ambitions, and urged
them to live lives with perseverance – or as her family calls it, stick-to-it-ive-ness
– embodying the true spirit of a Pioneer.
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| The L-S orchestra plays "Pomp and Circumstance" as graduates process |
Assistant Principal Mr. Benjamin Feeney was next to take the
microphone. Feeney officiated at graduation in his first year at L-S, as Mr.
Spencer had a child graduating at Garden Spot, and Dr. Rimmer’s daughter
Mallory graduated during the ceremony. Unfazed, Feeney congratulated the class on
its achievements, noting that it helped L-S High School earn a silver medal
from US News and World Report for
three consecutive years, and additional recognition from the Pennsylvania
Department of Education.
Feeney thanked the students for welcoming him into the L-S
family, something he realized was more than hyperbole early in his tenure. He closed his speech by quoting both his coffee cup and Dr. Seuss’s Oh the Places You’ll Go, and challenged
the seniors to begin each day with the mindset, “How can I make a difference
today?”
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| L-S senior vocalists perform "The Call" by Regina Spektor |
Subsequently, a group of senior vocalists offered L-S one
final mellifluous remembrance, proclaiming that there was “no need to say
goodbye” with Regina Spektor’s “The Call”, specially arranged by graduate Aaron
Smith.
Nick Mummau then took the stage as the class’s featured
graduation speaker. He analogized school to “the wild”. Elementary school was a
desert; students “did not ponder the end because it was so far away”.
Middle school was a jungle, a “never-ending jigsaw puzzle” filled with
memorable experiences. It led students to enter high school “more naïve than we
ever imagined.” Fondly recalling an embarrassing moment at the Homecoming
Carnival at which John Davis dropped Kelsey McNaul during a skit, Mummau noted
that some students waited a while to make
their “bang”. He closed by telling the class that it already had left a legacy
at L-S, and that “the past we cannot change, but the future has unlimited
possibilities.”
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| Ethan Emmert named Valedictorian |
Feeney proceeded to announce those earning top scholastic
achievement, the Valedictorian, Salutatorian, and third in class award. Ethan
David Emmert was named Valedictorian. After some awkward maneuvering waiting
for the photographer to take a picture, Feeney named Marah Lucy Brubaker
salutatorian. Having improved the photograph’s choreography from his first
experience, there was less of an awkward pause before Kelsey Nicole McNaul was
named third in class.
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| Toren Campbell walks down the ramp after receiving his diploma |
Brief remarks from superintendent Dr. Kevin Peart soon gave
way to the class roll call and awarding of ceremonial diplomas. Class treasurer
Danielle Franklin and secretary Olivia Gleason announced the names of the 245
graduating seniors, and the crowd largely maintained a respectful tenor,
notwithstanding sporadic outbursts of congratulations for a few graduates.
School Board President Jeffrey Mills’ proclamation that the
class of 2015 had duly graduated high school catalyzed an eruption in raucous
applause.
As class president Brian Joseph Barnhart gave the class the direction to turn its tassels, symbolically recognizing them as graduates, commencement
drew to a close.
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| New graduates celebrate with friends and family on Pioneer Field |
Just one hour after the ceremony began, the young men and
women who entered as students exited as graduates. And as the resplendent sunshine
gloriously set over the visitors’ bleachers at Pioneer Field, so too did the
Class of 2015’s time at Lampeter-Strasburg. But just as the sun’s setting
signals the end of one day to prepare for the dawn of a new one, the
ceremony signals the end of one chapter in 245 graduates’ lives in preparation
for the dawn of another.
