The uniqueness of attending Adams County’s smallest public secondary school was on full display during the Fairfield Area High School graduation ceremony on Wednesday.
Every commencement is about the future. Most have speeches from the valedictorian, salutatorian, and high school principal.
Fairfield’s followed suit.
It also ended with the reading of names and graduates moving their tassels from the right to left side of their mortarboard.
But it was during the reading of names that the school’s ceremony stood out and focused on the future. As readers announced the graduates, they included each student’s future plans. Time allows for such uniqueness when there are 71 graduates.
The Knights will soon be college students, employees, and Armed Forces members. Some are taking a gap year to focus on what they want from life.
Valedictorian Madeline McDannell noted each graduate’s plan is a sketch and only one step on their life journey.
“Unlike many of the books Ms. (Siri) Phelps has had us read, we cannot skip ahead to see exactly what the next chapter holds and how long it will be,” she said. “Each and every one of us is in their own book of life and each day is a page we can write for ourselves.”
Salutatorian Ava Deming encouraged her peers to find beauty in every situation, no matter how it may look on the surface. Deming’s speech took a philosophical tone, pondering the meaning of life.
“Every moment is everything to us and those very same moments are really nothing in the grand scheme of things, just lessons,” she said. “These experiences will come and go leaving nothing but memories and maybe a few cuts and bruises along the way; but maybe that is what life is all about.”
Deming noted she experienced beautiful moments at Fairfield High, such as watching someone picking up dropped books to help a student they barely knew and laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe.
Deming ended her speech with a short, yet powerful, piece of advice.
“Spread love, I am out of here,” she said.
Alex J. Hayes has spent almost two decades in the Adams County news business. He is passionate about sharing stories focused on the people in our communities and following local governments in an age when few journalists report on their meetings. Alex is also a freelance writer for several other publications in South Central Pennsylvania. Alex encourages readers to contact him at ahayes83@gmail.com.