AUBURN — Hundreds gathered Sunday evening at Walton Elementary School in Auburn to celebrate the start of a new chapter for the Edward Little High School Class of 2022.
Originally scheduled for Saturday evening, the event was moved to Sunday due to rain.
The ceremony was marked by fairy tale-themed speeches and stunning musical performances by graduating seniors, beginning with a touching compilation of images and videos of the class of 2022.
Alex Billings gives a high-five Sunday evening to Hidia Reyes as he arrives at Walton Field in Auburn, where Edward Little High School seniors would graduate later in the evening. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Holding flowers, balloons and signs, families and friends eagerly awaited the moment their graduate — one of 204 — would walk across the stage.
“Congrats Lucy! Rent is due on the 15th,” read the sign from one pragmatic father.
During her valedictorian address, Natalie Garcia urged her classmates to “enjoy the process of trying, even when we fail, even when we fail epically.”
The past four years have been spent finding our “just right,” Garcia said, likening their journey to that of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”
In the story, a girl who wanders into home and tries chairs, beds and porridge in search of her perfect fit.
“The story never tells us if Goldilocks was worried about one bed being too soft or that some porridge was too hot, but I hope that she liked the chance to try them all,” Garcia said. “Even if she hated that chair that was too soft, I hope that she liked the fact that she got to move on and try others.”
As the pressure mounts for the class of 2022 to find its path, Garcia said she is not sure of her career direction or college major.
“Everyone’s ‘just rights’ are going to have to be our own,” she said. “Our own failures and our own successes, and in our own time.”
An aerial view Sunday evening of the Edward Little High School graduation ceremony at Walton Field in Auburn. Visit sunjournal.com to watch a short video of the flight. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Just as Scheherazade tells one fantastical story after another in “One Thousand and One Nights,” a collection of Arabian folklore, each Edward Little student has his or her own story, said salutatorian Simon Hall.
“Some of these stories might be like Sinbad the sailor, the world-traveling merchant who went on dangerous adventures across oceans,” Hall said. “Like Sinbad, many of us have encountered unimaginable horrors on the high seas of high school homework assignments, such as a six-page paper due tomorrow or a long set math problems.”
But for others, homework may have been the least of their worries, he acknowledged.
Isabelle Trombley, center, takes a photograph Sunday evening with her mother, Heidi Wieland, left, and friend Kelly Allison. All three would be graduates of Edward Little High School after the commencement ceremony. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
One of the strengths of Edward Little High School lies in its ability to provide students with the space to forge their own paths, he said.
“As we are now graduating and turning toward the future,” Hall said, “we know that we will continue to write stories that are as individual as we all are. Stories that will go on to fill the many blank pages left in our books.”
In her speech after diplomas were awarded, Mai Luu, the senior class president, drew parallels with the story of “Little Red Riding Hood.”
“All of us are about to start our new and different stories,” Luu said. “Though we might have regrets or wish we had done some things differently, the ink has dried and we can’t change what has happened over the last four years. We can only move forward. But for now, let’s finish this story.”
And on her word, all of the graduates shifted their tassel from the right to the left. The end of one story, the start of another.
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