Night to remember for graduating Knights

An important part of moving on from these days of education as a youth and blossoming into adulthood is finding a path worth living, embracing one’s role in life and finding success, regardless of what journey life has planned.

West Holmes Superintendent Eric Jurkovic presented seven features the graduates should adhere to when struggles and life’s challenges present themselves during the West Holmes High School graduation ceremony on Friday, May 24.

Jurkovic spoke about the importance of gaining wisdom and understanding from Andy Andrews’ book, “Understanding the Keys to Personal Success.”

At the age of 19, about the same age as the graduates, Andrews found himself orphaned and homeless. Rather than succumb to life’s pitfalls, he studied biographies of hundreds of great people and observed seven common denominators.

Jurkovic shared these seven paths to a life of success and happiness, encouraging the graduates to embrace the ideals of taking responsibility, seeking wisdom, being persons of action, having certainty and a determined heart, happiness that comes from choosing friends carefully, forgiveness that comes with treating each day and every person they may encounter with a forgiving heart, and approaching life’s journey by embracing persistence with excellence.

“As you stand on the brink, these lessons will guide you,” Jurkovic said. “Embrace the journey and live with purpose.”

After the WHHS symphonic band opened the ceremony with “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Pomp and Circumstance,” graduates Allie McMillen and Zaylie Shultz welcomed those in attendance.

Salutatorian Alexander Zaugg then talked about the important role family plays in most everyone’s climb through the educational system, highlighting what his loved ones meant to him throughout his career, showing their support, encouragement and love, pinpointing the important role his mother and father played in his development as they nurtured and protected him every step of the way.

He certainly picked up one quality from his father, whom he said stood at the podium in 1999, delivering a speech as that graduating class’ valedictorian.

Zaugg painted a picture of young freshmen entering high school with blank pages in their respective books.

“Four years ago we entered this facility with no idea as to what our future was,” Zaugg said. “Three years ago the world was in chaos. Today, I stand before you, and I can say with certainty that even though we may not know what is coming, we have learned from what we have seen, and no matter the hardships we’ve faced or the losses that might have befallen us, we will persevere and achieve our goals as we strive to become the people we want to be.”

After a performance by the symphonic band, valedictorian Brianna Parks spoke about how high school not only shows others who each individual is, but also what they aspire to be in the future.

For this group finding that out began in a most odd fashion, online, as COVID forced this group of graduates to achieve growth in the educational world through a new thing called Zoom.

“Every day was a mystery, and no one knew what each day would bring,” Parks said. “The one thing I learned from COVID is that life is unexpected. Every day will bring new challenges.”

However, she said these strange days of learning from home prepared them for the challenges that will lie ahead.

She encouraged her fellow graduates, stating all of them are elite and capable of accomplishing great things.

“This was no easy feat,” she said. “It took hard work and dedication to get where we are. Take pride in what you’ve accomplished as we step forward into a new phase in our lives.”

She then touched on Norman Vincent Peale’s words of shooting for the moon, saying that even if you miss, you’ll end up among the stars.

“Always work hard and set ambitious goals for yourself because all of that hard work will pay off,” Parks said.

Parks ended her speech by talking about striving to do great things so they didn’t live with regret.

“Walk out of here knowing that you can do anything,” Parks said. “Life is like a book. There is a beginning and an end with hundreds of stories and memories in between. Every story is different, and whatever happens in each story, you have the power to determine what happens on each page.”

After the West Holmes chamber choir performed, Principal Scott Pringle presented the WHHS Class of 2024, Jurkovic accepted the class, and one by one the graduates were honored for their hard work, dedication and devotion to West Holmes staff, classmates, friends and underclassmen, receiving their diplomas and setting the stage for stepping into a whole new world as they begin to write a new chapter to their individual books.