CCHS Class of 2019

By Megan Behimer — 

Graduation at the Churchill County High School was a night of high spirits, passionate speeches, fervent prayers, and teasing insistence that the graduates will need of all of these in the trying times to come.

Although they were thrilled to finally toss their caps into the air and say goodbye to high school forever, the Class of 2019 will go on to attend colleges, join the workforce, and seek direction for their lives. Knowing that their journeys are far from over, we echo the prayer that Reverend Myers said for them: “May hope be a light within them that they carry into each new day.”

The Class of 2019 was recognized for a wide variety of achievements, from participating in various clubs to earning Associate’s degrees alongside high school diplomas. The principal of CCHS, Scott Winters, even announced one Greenwave Scholar (this title is only given to an Honors School student who also has a minimum GPA of 4.8).

Over two hundred students graduated, and six of these gathered on stage to commemorate Taylar Hutchings, who passed away before she could graduate herself. This group of girls presented a diploma in her honor and remembered, with tears and pride, what a friend she was to them. They described her courage, her readiness for a challenge, and her ability to “build fires in any part of her life that lacked warmth”. They promised to walk across the stage not just for themselves, but also for Taylar, so that even though she was gone, she could celebrate right along with them, and they could celebrate her.

Both of CCHS’s Valedictorians gave speeches to congratulate and encourage their fellow students and to bid farewell their high school experience. Stephanie Therianos began by claiming that her title of Valedictorian was nothing but a categorization derived from numbers on a report card, and that she and her fellow students were all there to celebrate the same success: graduation from high school, and the beginning of the next phase of their lives. She concluded with the hope that she and her class would “take every opportunity given to us and follow our passions” as they faced the future. Lauryn Mulac, who represented CCHS JumpStart students specifically, declared that their memories of friends and great times would prevail over the stress of what people always told them was the easiest part of their lives. Her final note was directed to her classmates: “It is all you who made the past four years worth remembering.”

The Class of 2019 paused in their celebration to say goodbye to two retiring teachers, John Johnson and Tom Fleming. Mr. Fleming’s Minor Details choir performed the song “A Million Dreams” as a last farewell, with several of the choir’s members dressed in cap and gown for their own graduation. To the simple accompaniment of a single guitar, the choir sang beautifully, a song that described the ambition and hopes for the future that the graduates surely felt. It was an eloquent end to a career that lasted thirty-six years, and the students capped it off by giving both teachers cards and flowers.

The keynote speaker, CCHS coach Brandon Sanders, was clearly passionate about the students and the achievements that allowed them to graduate, and he made sure that his passion spread to the audience. Coach Sanders gave the graduates three questions to take with them into their adult lives: “Who are you?,” “What is your why?,” and “Are you committed?” He fiercely advocated hard work, excellence, and humility above all else, and urged the students to “Stay committed to what you said you would do, even when the feeling has left.”

With their high school years behind them, and the rest of their life is ahead of them, the dedication and tenacity that they’ve learned in high school will be put to the test. Even when the excitement of graduating fades, these will be the lessons that stay with them, and the qualities that ensure success in their next steps.