Valedictorians delivered keynote address at the Tonkawa 2020 commencement ceremonies. Since the event was not open to the public, their speeches are reprinted below:
Kassidy Williamson...
Over the last couple of months the world has learned to distance themselves for the safety of others. Now we will learn how to be the class of 2020 from a distance, not because of safety but because we will be going down different individual paths to start a new journey of our own. Some of us have already moved forward into the military or started jobs and in less than two months the rest will be going into college. We will come back together for reunions, but this might be the last time this many of us will ever be in the same room again. Over the years things like stressing about assignments, getting to class on time, and the small fights we got into will fade away, but we will remember the times we spend together like homecomings, football games, our favorite classes, and our favorite teachers. We’ll also remember the challenging teachers that everyone thought were so tuff, but in ten years we are still going to remember what they taught us even if we don’t realize it, now. Each one of us will have different memories because everyone’s high school experiences are different. What we will all have in common are the memories of the dedicated teachers and administration staff. Ms. DeBoard even after she moved she still came to as many events she could and sent letters to us for graduation, Mrs. Smith even after retirement she kept our 2nd grade papers to give to us, Mr. Fath taught us about being an adult just as much as science, and Mrs. Grein taught us in 5th and 8th then helped us through high school as our counselor. I could name so many more but there isn’t the time. This day is something we looked forward to since freshman year then it looked like it might not happen, but today is here and we did graduate. We made it. Difficult situations like this might happen more in our lives, but let this be an example for us that things will work out in the end. In the last few months the world has changed so much, but now it’s our time to change the world.
Rosie Conaway...
Good morning family, friends, faculty, and classmates.
