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Schools

Our Last Days Before Graduation—Hinsdale South Class of 2012

Hinsdale South 2012 graduate Molly Hogan reports on last week's graduation festivities.

Cleaning out lockers, returning overdue library books and—perhaps surprisingly—worrying about rain were all on our minds before graduation on June 1. The days before commencement were full of on-and-off rain showers, which made us wonder if graduation would be held in the gym, rather than on the football field.

The senior picnic, traditionally held outdoors the day before graduation, was moved to the field house, because we were expecting rain that day. 

"I think having the picnic inside was a bummer," Karley Jerden said. "I would have stayed longer and enjoyed it more if it had been a nice day outside—just knowing all the underclassmen were jealous and watching [us] as [we] ate lunch."

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While rain changed the picnic's location, it didn't affect everyone's ability to reconnect with free food, music, a photo booth and caricature artists.

"It was nice to have everyone together at once, I feel like most everyone gets along very well," said Jessica Horvath.

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Even though the weather meant adjustments to Thursday's festivities, the rain held out on Friday and graduation was held outside.

Before the ceremonies Friday night, the rest of the student body and parents of seniors attended the Senior Awards Assembly. This is when seniors are presented with a range of scholarships and awards for various academic, extracurricular and athletic accomplishments.

"My favorite part [of the awards assembly] was at the end when basically the whole class was acknowledged for accruing over 15 million in merit scholarships," senior Akvile Zakarauskaite said. "I thought [that] was nice for people who weren't necessarily recognized with individual awards."

Guidance counselor Lara Jarman said she was proud of the seniors accomplishments.

"It is so impressive that our seniors were offered so much in merit money. To me, this demonstrates the wealth of talent, hard work and ambition our students have," said Jarman.

Talent and hard work also were recognized that night. Performances by the concert band and vocal jazz ensemble accompanied a speech by school board member Jennifer Planson, as well as two student speakers.

Mickahle Lamba, student council president, spoke first.

"Think of us in a Mario Kart race right now. There will always be banana peels or shells that knock us down, spin us around, and make us fall off the edge. Even though we may dodge many of them, at some point we will always get banana peeled."

Lamba told me why he included so many pop culture references in his speech.

"I wanted to include something everyone could relate to, which was Mario Kart and Harry Potter, because those two things were a part of everyone's childhood in some way," said Lamba.

Kara Leslie, the honors orator, also spoke. (It is customary at Hinsdale South for each of the "Top Ten" students to submit a speech and then have one chosen to speak at graduation.)

"I honestly didn't believe Dr. Waterman when he first told me [I would be speaking]," Leslie said. "I was so excited I can't even describe it."

At the conclusion of her speech she combined words of wisdom from Mark Twain and Henry David Thoreau.

"Twenty years from now you'll be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did, so, go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined."

With graduation already a few days in the past, students in the class of 2012 are already moving forward with their dreams.

*Editors Note: Molly Hogan is a 2012 Hinsdale South graduate and was editor-in-chief of the school's yearbook for the past two years. I am very pleased to have this talented young lady writing for Burr Ridge Patch.

—Sabrina Wu, Editor, Burr Ridge Patch.

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