Up until a few weeks ago, nobody knew for sure what the 2021 Hutchison High School graduation commencement would look like. Would it be outdoors like in 2020? Would it be digital? Would there be a capacity limit, or would people have to wear masks?
As it turned out, this year’s commencement looked much like others in the years before 2020, but the uncertainty leading up to the June 4 ceremony was a fitting end to a school year marked with such unpredictability.
As speakers such as Student Class President Paige Telecky and representative Julia Bryant pointed out in their commencement speeches, everyone was tired of talking about COVID-19 and “these unprecedented times.” The Class of 2021 had known adversity from the first year students entered the high school “in the middle of a construction zone” as work on building renovations was in progress.
But like fire tempers steel, students reflected on how the challenges of the past four years had molded them into the people they had become as they were about to go out to universities, community colleges and job sites with a better understanding of what it takes to navigate a world of uncertainty.
Student representative Landon Butler said he preferred to refer to it as “peculiar” times rather than unprecedented.
“We have faced numerous challenges that have truly tested our character and resilience,” Butler said during his commencement speech. “So yes, without a doubt the Class of 2021’s high school journey most certainly could be described as peculiar. But, just like the word itself, our strifes and defeats do not have to be exclusively viewed as a negative. Time and time again, we have overcome every obstacle that’s come our way.”
High School Principal Robert Danneker, in his speech, pointed out that the ability to overcome difficulties and apply those lessons to future endeavors is one of the greatest assets with which students can leave school. And if COVID-19 has taught students anything this year, it is how to better confront problems at school, at work and in life.
“Ladies and gentlemen, what sits before you tonight is the embodiment of flexibility and affability, the personification of can-do spirit,” Danneker said. “This is resiliency. This is the Hutchinson High School Class of 2021.”
