In the school’s 50th graduation ceremony, Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative High School celebrated 46 seniors.
Graduates were surrounded by parents, friends and faculty of WLC. Alumni from the Class of 1972 made a guest appearance, with many members still living in the Monadnock Region.
Samantha Boette, the class president, started the ceremony with her address to her class.
“I’m so sad to be leaving you all, but I want you to know that the memories we all shared will forever be with us,” said Boette. “We will never forget where we came from and we need to look forward to where we are going. I am so proud of each and every one of you.”
In Lindsay Aucoin’s salutatorian speech, she expressed her gratitude to the community by emphasizing the importance of embracing the future ahead.
“After spending a majority of our lives having the same routine, mostly the same people daily, it definitely isn’t going to be easy. But I’m excited to see everyone follow their own paths and define success for themselves,” she said.
The students from the Class of 2022 passed around tissues to wipe away their tears, and proud parents embraced their children during the annual rose ceremony.
The Class of 2022 spent a large portion of their high school careers engaged in remote learning, social distancing and mask-wearing. Before students were handed their diplomas and sent off to their future endeavors, valedictorian Elisabeth Jacob said that her experience in high school during the COVID-19 pandemic should be a learning opportunity for all.
“We are currently living in challenging times, and one of the greatest qualities a person can possess is kindness towards others. Everyone has a different story to tell, and we should all try our best to be more compassionate and understanding. Our success in life should never be measured by accolades and materialistic wealth, but instead by the way we treat those around us.”
To close off the night, WLC math teacher Bill Comerford gave a final lesson to his students.
“The most important lesson of all is that even the greatest adventures start with a single step,” he said. “As you leave here today, diploma in hand, your first step out of this gym will be the start of your next great adventure.”