Southern Aroostook Community School marks final ceremony as CSD

Southern Aroostook Community School held its commencement exercises last Friday at the high school in Dyer Brook.
Valedictorian Shelby Hartin addressed the crowd saying, “Our exploits during these four years have varied widely. We’ve all been exposed to a number of emotions ranging from animosity to elation, but every one of those feelings has come about from varied situations that are unique to each of us; however, there are some things that we’ve experienced together in high school that we will always carry with us. There have been moments over the years where this class has undergone a general feeling of togetherness with one another.”
    Hartin reminded her classmates that they may someday wish they can return to high school, but again, the emotions are varied.
“Many of us cannot wait to leave high school, while others are apprehensive to take the first steps of the new journey beyond this building,” she said.
As Hartin addressed her classmates and the audience, she said “You may be expecting me to stand here and give advice as to what to do and how to act after graduation, but I’m in no position to give it.”
She explained she was just as “clueless as anyone” and it “was OK.”
Hartin said she personally stumbled over even the most simple question of “Where are you going to college?”
“However, I’ve realized that it’s perfectly fine to flounder when faced with questions such as this,” she said. “I plan on changing my mind more times than I can count, and I’m sure that everyone else sitting here will as well.”
Quoting Anatole France “All changes, even the most longed for,” like graduating high school “have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”
Hartin said, “If anything, I know that everything is about to change. We’re all expected to act like adults now, like students embarking on a journey to truly discover ourselves and what we want to take from life, but many of us will struggle.”
Through the years, parents chided the students to enjoy their high school days, but Hartin admitted they took it all for granted and did not savor it until sitting in graduation ceremonies.
“But, that’s the simple beauty of it,” she said. “The memories will be sweeter than the experiences ever were, and we’ll look back to this time as an uncomplicated and undemanding period in our lives, when the world was filled with possibility, and our heart’s desires and our mind’s capabilities matched one another perfectly.
“As your class valedictorian, I’ll leave you with this A.A. Milne quote: “If ever there is a tomorrow when we’re not together, there is something you must always remember: you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
Salutatorian Cassie Garcelon compared high school graduation to the book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.
“In a way, we are all about to embark on a journey into Wonderland,” she said. “A bright and colorful world full of opportunity and fun, but at the same time a dark and scary world full of mystery and danger.  Many of us graduates have no clue where we are going, and even those of us who seem to know will probably end up changing our minds. The point is, when it comes to our dreams, no one can tell us where we want to get to; it is up to us to decide that. There are many paths to success. We’re sure to find one if we only keep looking.”
Though “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is, on the surface, a children’s tale; beneath that is a valuable lesson, Garcelon pointed out.
“Not everything that happens to us in life makes sense, and we don’t always know why things happen,” said Garcelon. “But it is important to remember that all of these experiences and mistakes, however trivial they may seem, are essential to the development of our character. We learn and grow with each choice we make, and eventually everything will turn out exactly the way it was meant to. That is not to say we should just sit back and let fate take over; we cannot hope to advance in life without always making the effort to change ourselves for the better, and a huge part of that means taking risks.”
Garcelon added, if a person comes upon an opportunity that has the potential to change his/her life, let it.
“Whatever challenges you face, face them with confidence, and you will be fine,” she said. “The whole time she is in Wonderland, Alice has the sensation that she is not in control, that everything is in a severe state of disorder. It is not until the end, when she wakes up from her dream, that she realizes she was in control all along. When everything seems completely out of control, always keep in mind that you are in control of your own destiny.
“Just as all of the bizarre things Alice encounters in Wonderland lead her along its winding paths, all of the experiences, mistakes, and relationships of our past and present shape our future, and it is of the utmost importance that we let them,” Garcelon concluded. “We should grasp every opportunity we encounter, regardless of the risk. Not taking chances is far more dangerous than failing; truthfully, the only way to fail is not to try at all.”
Then Paula Sperrey, who graduated as Salutatorian from Southern Aroostook High School in 1988, and received a bachelor’s degree in accounting, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Maine at Presque Isle in 1993 was introduced as the guest speaker.
Sperrey began her 15-year career at Maine Public Service Company in 1996, and has held positions there as corporate accountant, director of investor relations, tax and financial analyst, and is currently Accounting Department Supervisor with four employees in her department. She resides in Presque Isle with her twin 8-year-old daughters Sabrina and Alaina, who will be entering third grade at Zippel Elementary School in the fall.
There were several reasons why she was pleased to be asked to speak at the commencement exercises. The first, her niece Cassie Garcelon graduated as salutatorian. The second reason was Sperrey’s graduating class of 1988 was the first class to attend the entire 13 years of education, from kindergarten through grade 12 under one roof at Southern Aroostook Community School. The third reason was that her mother, Elaine, has been an employee at Southern Aroostook for 26 years. Lastly, Sperrey was honored because this is the final year that Southern Aroostook Community School District No. 9, will operate as a community school district, as the school will become part of a regional school union.
“Fortunately there will still be the same location and building here, but it is certainly important to mark this class as the final class graduating from the original Community School District that began back in 1975,” she said.
Sperrey told the Class of 2011 that technological items that were now part of their daily routines were not available just 23 short years ago when she graduated.
“Students, the first time I ever saw or used a computer was during my senior year of high school. We were amazed and impressed to have just a few desktop PCs (no laptops, mind you) in our business area during my senior year.  The only function we used on these computers was simple word processing.”
And Sperrey said social website were unknown to students of that time.
“When we had to prepare a research paper or find information on a certain topic, we made a trip to the library and had to look in the Encyclopedia,” she said. “The Encyclopedias, not Wikipedia, were our Internet back then.”
But Sperrey cautioned that society may be trading memory for progress.
“Until the 15th century, people were taught to remember vast quantities of information. Feats of memory that would qualify you as a freak today — the ability to recite entire books — were not uncommon,” she said.
Then Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith and inventor, invented the printing press in 1450 and society became accustomed to relying on the printed page.
“The work of remembering gradually fell by the wayside,” she said. “The capacity to remember huge amounts of information does still exist today, however …” as she mentioned the U.S. Memory Championship.
“Today, of course, we’ve got books, and computers and smart phones to hold our memories for us,” she said. “We’ve outsourced our memories to external devices. The result is that we no longer trust our memories. We see every small forgotten thing as evidence that they’re failing us altogether. We’ve forgotten how to remember.”
Sperrey related her words to getting older and life seemingly going by faster.
“That’s because we structure our experience of time around memories,” she said. “We remember events in relation to other events. But as we get older, and our experiences become less unique, our memories can blend together.
“I would like to challenge you, Class of 2011, not to forget that you all have amazing brains, amazing creative minds that are capable of learning and remembering huge amounts of information,” she said. “Your brain does not need to stay on the plateau of ‘just remembering or learning enough to get by’, or ‘just enough to pass the test’.”
First Honor Essayist David Dubois said when he woke up last Friday he thought ‘Wow, I’m finally going to be done high school’.
“Just a few years ago I was roaming the halls, goofing around, and jumping out of a dumpster  …, but then I had a dream, no not that  kind of a dream. I decided I wanted to get into a good college and have the chance to be giving this speech today.”
Dubois said the decision didn’t come easily.
“One of the most important things in life is to have goals,” he said. “Goals are important for everyone. Whatever it may be, everyone else’s opinion doesn’t matter when it comes to your goals. Only yours truly does. And with enough sweat, dedication, and practice, nearly all goals are reachable. The truth is however, you never know when your last day may be, so class of 2011, go out, try your best to achieve your goals, and when you do, set new ones. And live every day as if it is your last.”
Dubois added, “We all have career aspirations and goals we want to achieve in life, and I know every one of us can do anything we set our minds to. If we don’t try, we’ll never have the chance to see what we could have done. We have created memories in school and out that will last forever. I hope the best for all of you, and the dreams and goals you want to achieve.”
Dubois ended with a Dr. Seuss quote. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know.  You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
Second Honor Essayist Jasmine Rockwell started her speech by telling her classmates she considered them family “because we have been together for so long and we know so much about one another.”
Rockwell said ever since she could remember, she dreamed of what she wanted to be when she grew up.
“Whether or not I was capable to do the things I wanted to do,” she said. “Changing my mind from wanting to be a nurse, to a chef to an athletic trainer, I really had no idea what career I wanted to pursue after I was done high school.”
The the most important thing people can do for themselves, is believe that they can accomplish anything that they set their minds to even if they just have faith that they can do it, Rockwell said.
“It was my dream to graduate with honors, to be a member of NHS, and to call myself one of the top four of my class,” she said. “After the four very short years of high school, and after believing in myself that I could graduate in the top half of my class, here I am today giving this speech. So, think to yourself that “Impossible is Nothing” and believe in yourself; you an do anything that you set your mind to.”