‘Stand on your rock’ and believe to be the best

PALMER — Live what you believe and be the best.

That was the challenge made to the Palmer High School class of 2010 Thursday by two of its own. The PHS gymnasium was packed to the rafters to watch as 183 graduates received their diplomas, and the end of their high school careers didn’t come without a big finish.

Hannah Moye summarized why the 2010 Moose senior class is the best while Isaac Courson made a passionate speech encouraging students to simply “live what you believe, right up to the end. Live it inside out and up and down and out and in.”

Courson looked back nine months to the start of his senior year. He was sitting in his third-period class and told a friend, “I’m going to speak at graduation,” he said. And when that chance came Thursday evening, he issued a challenge.

“I challenge myself today and I challenge you also … to live what you believe, no matter the circumstances,” he said, “to stand on your rock no matter the storm that faces you.”

That would seem good advice to achieve Moye’s message of being the best.

“The real reason our class is the best is because of our perseverance, determination and the fact that when we are met with a task, we complete it to the best of our abilities,” she said.

Success in the world after high school isn’t measured simply by material measures, both students said.

“It doesn’t matter if you make a lot of money, it doesn’t matter if you’re famous and it doesn’t matter if you are what people tag a ‘success,’” Courson said.

Before heading into the graduation ceremony, Kent Johnson held a bouquet of flowers while reflecting on watching the youngest of three daughters, Gabrielle Johnson, graduate.

Now that his youngest is out of high school, he said the time seems to have passed quickly.

“Oh yes, very, very quick,” he said. “There were a few tough years when it seemed to go slow, but now, overall it seems very fast.”

And now that his daughters are all adults, he’s also planning for the future. “I’m thinking I’ve finally got the house to myself.”

After introducing special guests at the graduation ceremony, Palmer High Principal Wolfgang Winter shared some advice he heard during commencement at a school he previously worked at.

“No matter how cool you think you are right now, this is an undeniable truth,” he said. “In about 20 years or so from now when your kids are thumbing through your yearbook, they will beg you — they will beg you — to tell them they were adopted.”

While the mood in the gymnasium was lighthearted with colorfully decorated mortar boards and a roaming beach ball, Moye expressed confidence the class of 2010 will make its mark on the world.

“Some will go on to be the world’s best doctors, lawyers and politicians,” she said. “And who knows, maybe some will even become the best guy with a beard holding a sign in downtown Palmer by the Chevron.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.