More than 400 seniors graduated from Edison High School Wednesday, June 15, at EagleBank Arena, formerly the Patriot Center, marking the beginning of graduation season for Fairfax County high schools. The 412 students of the Class of 2016 walked up on stage to receive their diplomas from Edison Principal Pamela Ellison Brumfield.
Principal Brumfield spoke of the diversity of backgrounds and experiences among Edison’s graduates, saying, “Many of you have received thousands of dollars in scholarships and will be going across the country to top universities. Some of you are staying home, close to home going to school. Some of you worked while you attended school each day. Some of you sitting here will serve our country with pride, and many of you raised money for worthy causes and volunteered for the community.” These students will always be tied together through their time at Edison, as Brumfield said. “The name I want you all to remember, that you all have common, is that you are Eagles,” before ending her address with a challenge. “I challenge you to live up to the name of being a true Edison Eagle and when you do, you will soar.”
Edison’s seniors left graduation with one last day of lessons to remember. Presenting the graduation address, senior Emily Wilson advised her fellow graduates to embrace taking risks and not to worry about making mistakes. “Many of us, myself included, believe that we have to be at our best all the time. It’s exhausting and, more importantly, it’s constricting. Why take a risk that has such a high probability of failure in a world where failure is not an option? If there is anything I have learned in my time at Edison, it’s that we need to stop thinking this way,” said Wilson, as she encouraged her classmates to try to embrace failure, because as she put it, “If we make mistakes, this means we actually did something. It doesn’t matter if it didn’t work. What matters is that we tried.”
Class President Tess Megren chose to focus on the future and its unpredictability, saying, “What I’ve really learned over the past four years here at Edison is that you can plan everything out and envision the way you want things to be, but often times it doesn’t work out that way at all. And this isn’t necessarily bad. It’s just the way things are.”
Throughout the day, the theme was not to shield one’s self from mistakes or adversity or the unknown, but to embrace them, for that is when true learning and growth happens. Capping off the celebratory day, Edison teacher Scott Racek, who gave the commencement address, imparted three pieces of advice to the graduates: Be grateful, be loyal and do one’s job.