Among the 416 graduates at the Friday ceremony, more than a fifth were members of the national honor society. They had spent somewhere in the range of 5,040 hours of high school education reaching this moment.
And the numbers didn’t mean a thing. With beach balls airborne they were being young and foolish, and loving it.
Senior Class President Kristin Zakoworothy pointed out the correlation between the perceptions of youth and foolishness to her classmates. However she chose a different connotation of fool, veering away from idiotic toward lighthearted.
“We can continue to be fools as we learn to pay bills, fold our own laundry and eat ramen noodles,” Zakoworothy said. “We can only be young once, but we can be fools forever.”
Senior Madeline Molot, recognized for her outstanding achievement in academics, spoke of their time in high school, tallying the 5,040 hours spent in Amity Regional High School’s halls. But is wasn’t the tests, worksheets and trials of youth that will endure according to Molot.
“We will be remembered by the people we touched, we loved and made happy” she said.
In his remarks to the students, Principal Dr. Charles Britton expressed his joy in watching them grow over the years. He recalled meeting the incoming students’ first group of advisory members, 11 young freshmen he would watch change over the years.
“It is hard to imagine now but you all looked so young back then,” he reminisced. But each year they returned with slightly broader shoulders, a little more facial hair and growing confidence in who they were.
“The march of time has changed you from those freshmen to the confident young adults here today,” he said.
By 6 p.m. the tassels were turned and a slew of graduation caps took to the air before settling on the ground next to the more colorful beach balls. The Class of 2014 was dismissed to greet friends and family and prepare to leave youth behind, even if they chose to hold on to a little playful foolishness for the rest of their lives.