5 days ago
GHS Class of 2025 steps into a new chapter
By Travis Hairgrove
thairgrove@
The air was filled with the sounds of cheers and airhorns at T.A. 'Cotton' Ford Stadium as the Class of 2025 of both Greenville High School and New Horizons High School walked across the stage and into a new chapter of their lives.
'Kindergarten was the first step of many we unknowingly took to get here today, on a journey that we sometimes believed would never end,' student Aden Lewis said in remarks to those in attendance. 'Now, 13 years later, we're a little taller, a little wiser and still wondering what's ahead of us, we're here to celebrate.'
One of the highlights of the ceremony was the graduation of the 18 students who make up its third graduating class of GHS' Early College High School program, a four-year program through which students are able to earn associate's degrees in engineering or multidisciplinary studies.
When ECHS Chancellor Rebekah Russler spoke, she proudly listed the accomplishments of the class – who graduated from Paris Junior College two weeks earlier – announcing that six of them graduated with honors, that four finished with a GPA of a 4.0 and that five out of the top 10 GHS graduates were in the program.
'They earned every bit of their two diplomas,' Russler said.
With the ceremony being a celebration of a major milestone in the students' lives, an ongoing theme in both the salutatorian a valedictorian speeches was one of embracing the uncertainty of the future.
'Every single one of you will leave this field with the promise of one thing – freedom,' GHS Salutatorian Nadenka Hallonquist said. 'And here's the fun part. You're on your own now. Don't want to wake up early? Go ahead. Sleep in. Don't want to go to your least favorite class? You don't have to. No one can tell you what to be and what to do now.
'Honestly though, that's a scary idea – being on your own,' she continued. 'I can't predict the future. No one can. All we can do now is hope we make decisions that will shape a good one, but I know we can do it.'
Similarly, Valedictorian Ian Kowalczyk stressed the importance of being both confident and kind to oneself when dealing with challenges.
'When I first walked into Greenville High School as a freshman, I had the instinctual worry of not fitting in or being awkward … but the more I tried to run from me insecurity, the more I regretted being afraid of it in the first place. I failed myself,' Kowalczyk said.
'That's what happens. You will fail,' he continued. 'Sometimes subtly and other times visibly. But either way, you'll learn that in life, things are simply just not that easy.'
