From the start, commencement exercises at WHRHS on Friday, May 30 were a bit different – and not because of the brisk wind that threatened to send mortarboards airborne before the graduating class sat down.
Easily noticeable on the crimson graduation stoles worn by the seniors were bright green mental health awareness ribbons, and the first speaker on the program – Class President Francesca Ruffini helped explain why in her speech, a welcome on behalf of the graduating class.
“This class has been through so much together, and I hope we all learned something from each other,” Ruffini said.
As she concluded her speech, Ruffini addressed the presence of and “empty chair.”
“Scanning our crowd today, we are missing one of the brightest lights of people, and that is Ava Patete,” she said. “She was a light that lit up our graduating class – we all knew her, we all loved her and we will all miss her forever. Let us remember her today, especially on her anniversary and for many years to come.”
Ruffini personally asked the class to live like Ava: spontaneously, kindly and compassionately, She then asked the graduates and families to observe a moment of silence for her late friend.
“Let’s carry her light forward in everything we do,” she said.
It was a message of hope in community, echoed by a school official who spoke with humor about his anxiety, a valedictorian who had worked to overcome insecurity and a principal whose words had to be spoken by someone else, as he recovered at home from hip surgery.
Kindness, resiliency and hope were themes repeated by the speakers as they sent the Class of 2025 out into the world to forge their futures.
Focusing on the adversity the class has seen, and will no doubt encounter in their future lives, Ruffini also spoke of a book her mother gave her that helped her work through some of the toughest times she has so far faced in life.
“The book involves the theory called, the ‘let them’ theory,” she said. “’the let them’ theory reveals who people really are, and when you see them, show their true colors is when you choose what to do next.”
The upshot is to learn how to stop trying to get other people to meet your expectations – how someone treats you is how important you are to them.
“Instead of trying to change yourself, or even that other person, let them be who they are and let yourself be who you are,” she said. “Life is about finding people who value you for your true self.”
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak kept to the message on the importance of mental health as he opened his remarks by repeating an anecdote from a previous graduation speech concerning the anxiety he feels, which is more intense before giving speeches and his wife’s reassurance.
He spoke about “The Power of You,” which means “showing up, even when it’s hard.”
“It means trying again, even when you didn’t get it right the first time, – or the fifth time,” he said. “It means being a Panther, not just wearing the red and back, but representing the strength, the pride and the heart of this school. … You’ve been building something powerful – not just knowledge, but character, not just skills, but purpose and not just memories, but mementoes – the power of you is not just in what you’ve learned, but how you’ve learned, how you faced adversity and kept going, how you’ve lifted others when they needed a hand and how you’ve asked bold questions or dared to be different.”
Valedictorian Patrick Hurley spoke on “Who We Are” and how one of the most important gifts the class had received from W-H has been a sense of community, which provide a foundation for who we want to be and how to get there.
“While that may seem like a given, for someone like me it took a bit longer than usual to really come to engage with that part of life,” he said. “I entered high school a far more reserved and insecure person than I am standing here, someone who perceived themselves as more awkward than anything else, and who felt stunted in their social life. While I doubt that that aspect of myself is completely gone, I’m overjoyed to be in a place where, looking out at you all, I see friends—people I’m fond of, whose aspirations to become teachers, doctors, engineers, artists, businesspeople, tradespeople, and so much more — I’ve come to know and understand.”
The health of a community, he noted, requires individual responsibility to make it the best that it can be, Hurley noted.
“As we set out into the world, there are going to be challenges far greater than anything high school had to offer. As you rise to face the difficulties of an increasingly complex and hostile world, I encourage my classmates to ask themselves who their community is,” he said. “Who do you trust and support, and how can you show that? What can you do to make your world a kinder place?”
Salutatorian Nolan Keyes, meanwhile, reflected on the meaning of success.
“Deep down, I truly do believe that each individual here has what it takes to succeed,” he said. “Success is not determined by others, but by yourself, and the different goals, aspirations, and plans for the future that you create. While I do believe it is important to dream big, I believe it is far more important to dream for yourself. Chase your own goals, find your own personalized passions, and make your own impact on the world.”
Selected from among her fellow seniors for the opportunity to speak for the Class of 2025, Karyn Stone spoke about “Your Moment” by enumerating the ways in which graduation is not one’s “moment,” the defining moment of one’s life.
“Because those things, as amazing as they were, don’t define you,” she said, explaining that high school and the accomplishments made there are just a chapter of a bigger story. “They are a part of your story, sure, but not your whole story. … Graduation is an incredible accomplishment, and we should all be proud. We made it through the early mornings, long nights, big tests, and even bigger doubts. We supported each other. We laughed, we learned, and sometimes we crashed and burned. But we kept going. So yes, celebrate this moment. Hold it close. But don’t let it be the finish line.”
School Committee Chair Beth Stafford injected some humor into the program as she spoke about memories, by putting on a fabric Pharoh’s crown as she addressed members of the graduating class she taught as sixth-graders at Whitman Middle School in 2019 – her last students before retiring.
“To bring back some happy, funny memories, I thought I would add this to my outfit today,” she said. “I would start each unit in costume and this, of course is Egypt. I hope that when you look back at your years at school … that you have a lot of memories. … I would ask you to use these memories to help shape your future dreams. Even unhappy memories can affect how you go on about achieving your dreams.”
Reading Principal Dr. Christopher Jones’ speech – as he was home recovering from surgery — Assistant Principal David Floeck related Jones’ comments on dealing with anxiety and fear.
“Let’s be honest, success isn’t about living without anxiety, it’s about walking through it,” Jones wrote. “It’s about learning to pause. Breathe in. Breathe out, and take the next step anyway.”
Discomfort, Jones says, is not the enemy, it may be one’s greatest teacher.
“Growth doesn’t live inside your comfort zone,” he stated. “Dreams don’t chase you down, they wait in places that stretch you, scare you and require you to show up differently.”
Floeck, offered thanks to Class Advisors Daniel Moriarty and John Rosen for the hours they have dedicated to the senior class, Administrative Assistan Siobhan Horton and Megan McDonald for the herculean task of planning and overseeing the setup of the graduation ceremony and Chris Googins for his assistance in that work, Courtney Selig and the school’s counseling department for their unrelenting support for W-H students and Marcus Casey and Jason Cook for the audio and visual equipment setup.
He also recognized retiring teachers: Michelle Gentile, who taught history at the high school for 18 years and Rosen, who retires as a science teacher after 31 years.
The ceremony was broadcast live on Whitman-Hanson Community access TV, where it will be rebroadcast and on their YouTube channel at Whitman-Hanson Educational Channel – YouTube.