GUYSBOROUGH – Across our region the Class of 2022 was celebrated this past week – in particular for achieving their goals despite the setbacks of COVID-19. With the uncertainty of the past few years, Guysborough Academy’s graduating class was thankful to be a part of a ‘normal’ graduation ceremony on June 28.
The ceremony, held in the Chedabucto Place Performance Centre, brought together family and friends to see Guysborough-area students receive their diplomas and awards as well as reflect on their years together as classmates. Principal Barbara Avery began the evening by thanking all those who helped the graduates reach this point in their academic career.
“As you prepare to leave our school, please remember to take with you the memories, knowledge and skills you’ve gained, and use them wisely,” she said.
Avery noted the obstacles overcome by this class as they spent a majority of their high school years under the cloud of the pandemic – adjusting to lockdowns, online learning and uncertainty.
“This graduating Class of 2022 should be the exemplar used for the word resiliency in the Oxford English Dictionary from this moment forward,” said Avery.
Guysborough-Tracadie MLA Greg Morrow told the graduates, “Wherever you go, always remember where you came from. Guysborough County is a pretty awesome, special part of the province and the world. Hopefully, you stay, we need more young people to stick around, but even if you go, don’t forget us back home.”
Jim Keay, a teacher at Guysborough Academy, was guest speaker for the ceremony. Due to attending his child’s graduation in Antigonish on the same evening, Keay prepared a video message for the Class of 2022, in which his comments garnered more than a few laughs between words of advice.
“As you step out of your high school experience and begin your new chapter, welcome the change and all the opportunities that await,” Keay said.
Following his address, diplomas were presented by Principal Avery and Vice-Principal Tera Dorrington.
In her speech, class valedictorian Vanessa Dort highlighted graduates’ progress from their first day at Chedabucto Education Centre in the STEP program to the extremely successful production of the play Grease they performed in Grade 10 under the guidance of teacher Chris Martins and the pandemic years that followed.
Dort read out a list of potential occupations the graduating students had written in their first year at school – the STEP class of 2008 – which included a few artists, police officers, chefs and a superhero.
“I honestly don’t think these are remotely close to where we are going now,” Dort said with a laugh adding, “We tried.”
She recalled the elementary school years: class trips that ended in car sickness, Jake Grady’s preference for raisins at snack time, musical afternoons with Mrs. Delorey, bubble gum dropping from teacher Eddie Avery’s pockets on the playground, and the special Grade five year with Mrs. Lombardo.
Grade six, said Dort, was lockers and joining school sports; Grades seven and eight were filled with school trips and visits to Boylston Park where the students played games, and Grade nine was the start of exams.
Grade 10 was the year of Grease, not listening to instructions in biology lab, and later, COVID-19 lockdowns, said Dort, noting that the situation was far from ideal but the students kept themselves entertained at home.
The following year, Grade 11, included the second lockdown and then it was onto Grade 12. Dort noted, “They weren’t lying when they said your Grade 12 year would fly by. It’s crazy to think that this is it, our final time here together at Guysborough Academy … We were very fortunate to have what is now considered a normal year. We got to have all of our sports and student council events. We made the most out of what we could.”
Dort added, “I’d also like to mention that our class, right up until Grade five, had every teacher either retire or leave the school. This either meant that they loved us so much they wanted to end on a good note or that our class was so bad that they’d had enough and had to leave.”
Dort concluded her address by reciting a quote by Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow … I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
