newsminer.com

Lots of laughter and colors of the rainbow marked graduation day for the Tri-Valley High School class of 2008.

Ten seniors, each clad in a different colored bright cap and gown, walked in under a multi-colored arch. Although the processional was traditionally formal, the rest of the ceremony certainly was not.

How many classes get publicly and personally serenaded by one of their teachers? How many students get an official pardon from the school superintendent for 70 minutes of detention that were never served? And how many classes spend this momentous occasion uproariously laughing at themselves and their foibles during the years — as the audience knowingly laughs with them.

Valedictorian Cora Braun and salutatorian Luccas Giannechini gave a joint address and compared their lives to a trek up a mountain.

“We will take what the school, our parents and the community have given us and as Gandhi said, be the change we wish to see in the world,” Giannechini said.

The duo compared their parents to Sherpas “who don’t get paid.”

“They have taught us the skills we need to find our own paths,” Braun said.

Teachers and the community also helped mold the youngsters.

“Looking back at the amazing opportunities we have been offered, you’d think Tri-Valley School was serving 2,000 students, instead of 200,” Braun said.

Each graduate now follows his or her own path. “Some may walk the ridgeline, making quick time,” Giannechini said. “Others stride into the lush valley, and many set their sights on distant, higher peaks.”

“It is our hope that whatever direction we choose to venture in, we will all strive to seize the day,” he said. “We must remember to focus on the destination, but also to look around, along the way, because 90 percent of the joys of life lie in the journey.”

Throughout the ceremony, scholarships were duly awarded and diplomas distributed. The longtime tradition of graduates offering roses to loved ones took place as a slide show depicting the last 13 years of the graduates, shone on a giant screen.

Most touching in during the slide show were the photos of Scott Menke, who would have been a part of the graduating class if he were alive today. It is from Scott Menke that students took their motto: Be good to yourself.

But the most entertaining part of the event was the address by senior class adviser and teacher Mark Jordan. He used the podium to reminisce, laugh and to honor the students.

As he pointed out, they include dancers, a ham radio operator, medical technicians, engineers, hockey players, runners, soccer stars, basketball players, spikers and setters.

Among the graduates are Alaska scientists of the future and musicians who have performed in cathedrals of Europe.

Some studied physics in Ohio, and some ate freeze-dried food at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. They include actors, mentors, student leaders, weight lifters and “very advanced four-square superstars.”

For a small school in rural Alaska, the list was daunting.

And as they threw their caps into the air to celebrate the beginning of their next journey, the audience may have been thinking about the special message from the class:

“No matter what we do or where we venture, we will always remember how we got there and how much you have all helped us along the way.”