BELLVILLE — The Clear Fork High School band performed the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” as seniors took center stage at Colt Field on Friday evening, and friends and family filled the stadium to honor the soon-to-be graduates.
Seniors Ashley McKenzie and Kristen Hunter sang the national anthem to start the ceremonies, and Principal Brian Brown recognized the top 10 percent of the class, along with their parents.
Stevi Jo Roberts urged her classmates to pursue their dreams and make what they want to happen come true with the song “Ever After.”
Honor graduate Sarah Beal was the first of the four graduation speakers, who all thanked their parents for their encouragement and support. Beal talked about relationships and read a poem in honor of graduation.
“We have been in this cycle of life together,” Beal said. “We have gone through the good and the bad. ... As we leave high school a new chapter starts. ... Let’s celebrate class of 2008. We did it together.”
Caleb Slavinski, another honor graduate, shared memories of the class’ journey from kindergarten and elementary school to middle school to high school. He gave excerpts from “All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” and commented that it would be simple to fix the world’s problems if we followed those kindergarten rules.
“Don’t lose those memories or those lessons,” he said.
Exchange student Ingrid Karsch, from The Netherlands, thanked the Clear Fork community for making her year in the Valley an amazing one, in addition to congratulating the graduating seniors. She said there were not enough words to thank her host family, her friends, teachers and the school for giving her the chance to attend Clear Fork High School.
“It was a wonderful year,” Karsch said. “I love America.”
Class president and honor graduate Katelyn Kochheiser said, “We made it. ... After we left elementary school, most of us would have given our right arms for nap time and snack time. ... We had some exciting times and some miserable times in middle school, and some of us thought high school would never end.”
She told her fellow students that life after high school is a journey, sometimes with obstacles and difficulties, and asked them to view each day as an opportunity for a fresh start. Kochheiser suggested that graduates remember what Henry Ford said: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”
Before the presentation of diplomas, seniors Kate Miller and Mark Worner reminded their classmates, through song, to “Dream Big” — as big as the ocean because sometimes dreams come true.
Daniel Mottayaw then performed “Homesick” and Kochheiser led in the turning of the tassels, concluding the ceremony and signaling that the members of class of 2008 are now formally graduates of Clear Fork High School.
