While 1,800 Loudoun County students waited for their diplomas June 14-18, they repeatedly heard about trust, making choices and saying thank you from the valedictorian and keynote speakers.
Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher described trust as something that grows slowly and can be lost in an instant. "Who do you trust? It's a timely question," said Fisher, keynote speaker for the Potomac Falls High School graduation ceremony Saturday morning. "Trust is not something you learn. It's something you choose."
An estimated 316 students chose to finish high school at Potomac Falls, while an estimated 296 students graduated from Broad Run, 326 students from Park View and 275 students from Stone Bridge, a new school which held its first graduation ceremonies this year. On average, 98 to 99 percent of seniors graduate from Loudoun schools and about 1 percent drop out, said Wayde Byard, school press officer for Loudoun County public Schools.
"Many of you think high school is an end all, be all. Maybe it shows you fully don't trust the future," Fisher said. "Leaving high school is a grand intermission. The second act has nothing to do with the first. ... You write it as you see fit, only if you trust it."
Fisher spoke at George Mason University's Patriot Center, where five of seven Loudoun's graduation ceremonies took place, including those for eastern Loudoun's four high schools.
STONE BRIDGE'S keynote speaker Mark Stavish said that the graduates will be able to chart the choices they will make as adults, including where they will attend college and the majors, careers and relationships they will choose. Stavish of America Online, Inc. outlined the five choices successful people make, including choosing to follow their passions, having a plan, taking action, realizing failure can occur and making choices that help others.
"If you follow your passions, you will be great at what you do. If you're great at what you do, everything else will take care of itself," Stavish said Friday evening. A passion without a plan is a scheme or a dream, he said, adding, "But a passion with a plan, now that's a mission."
Stone Bridge valedictorian Katherine Gora used choice as the theme of her address. "I want you to know that any choice you make in good faith is good one," she said.
Several speakers at the other high school ceremonies also spoke about choice.
"The choices you make today will shape who you are tomorrow," said Park View High School valedictorian Kathleen Oare while several students, mostly on the boys side, bounced beach balls back and forth.
Oare listed the ten lessons she and her classmates learned during their high school years. Of those, she mentioned that "bad things happen to good people" and that disappointments can be taken as a setback or a starting point. "There are always choices to make. Every day we make hundreds of choices," she said.
Oare said she learned she can be herself and that "people come into our lives for a reason." She encouraged the graduates to thank one person that day, acknowledging the impact people have on their lives to help them move on.
THANKING THOSE who teach us something was one of the themes of Allen Merten's address at Park View's graduation ceremonies, which took place Saturday afternoon. "Thank those people who taught you something. They have given you a great gift," said Merten, president of George Mason University.
Merten said a teacher does not have to be certified but can teach others through jobs, friends and the community. "You know a lot. You learned a lot about life that is important to others. Think about ways you could share your knowledge," he said. "Sometimes the teaching moment just shows up. ... Keep listening. Keep learning."
Potomac Falls High School valedictorian Lisa Sincavage gave a list of advice at the end of her speech. "Live. .... Look up. ... Say something great before you die. ... Sing like no one's listening," she said. "Believe in something. Believe in Everything."
Broad Run's keynote speaker Terrence Kelly, New York City firefighter, had something to believe in after helping with the recovery effort following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers Sept. 11, 2001. He mentioned reading his high school yearbook on the way to Broad Run's graduation ceremony, which was took place Monday morning. The inscription under his picture said, "Glory is not in failing but in rising every time you fail."
"I think of that now, and I think we as a nation have done that. We've come out of that after this failure," said Kelly to the graduates at Broad Run, where Eva Waller was the class valedictorian. "They can knock down our buildings, but they can't take the spirit of our [lives]."
"We learned for the first time what it is to overcome a tragedy," Sincavage said in reference to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. "In these last years, we've lived a lifetime of memories. We gain our independence entering a world entirely different."
SEVENTEEN-year-old Potomac Falls graduate Lindsey Montana is ready for that world. "It's exciting. I'm just glad to be out," said Montana, who plans to attend Ithaca College in New York. "It's going to change now."
Montana was just one of the students who gathered outside the Patriot Center following the five graduation ceremonies.
"I can't wait to see what happens," said Kyle Van Helmond, an 18-year-old graduate from the same school who plans to attend college in the fall. "It's going to be much harder, [but] it's going to be nice to be on my own."
Other students had mixed feelings about graduation.
"It's really exciting, but it also is really sad. I'm going to start crying," said Park View graduate Amanda Ruane, 18, who plans to attend Marywood University in Pennsylvania. "We have to leave everybody behind and go to college."
"It's also really scary, because it's stepping into the unknown," said Rebecca Nakles, 18, a graduate of Park View and a James Madison University student in the fall. "It's also great because you get to be proud of all you've accomplished."
Graduation signals the end and commencement the beginning, as Superintendent Edgar repeated in his speeches for Loudoun's graduation ceremonies.
"Over the years, you who are the graduates learned many lessons, skills and facts. You also learned how to work with people," Hatrick said, adding that in their interactions, students learned how to apply "one simple guide." Hatrick said what that guide was in French, German, Latin and Spanish, then in English "This is a rule that works in every language and every place you may go. 'Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.'"