Wise Words (and Laugh Lines) from PHS Graduation

is so accomplished it took Principal Randy Booker nearly 15 minutes during the  Thursday to rattle off all the acknowledgments and awards for participation in student activities and academic achievements.

In addressing the audience in the Witter Field stands as "parcel taxpayers," social studies and economics teacher Gabrielle Kashani recognized that the graduation was a crowing achievement not just for the 211 students who got their diplomas, but for the community as a whole.

However, Kashani said in her keynote speech, the class of 2011 did not have such an auspicious start to their final year of high school.

"You chose to have your senior cut day ... on the very first day of the second semester—for many of you, the very first day of my class. Not a great first impression," Kashani told the students. "[But] you absolutely began to work your way into my good graces Day Two."

And, she went on, the class of 2011 turned out to have fantastic timing. "As I've told you in class, the job market should recover by 2015, exactly when you enter the workforce."

Student speaker Anne Hosler wondered what her classmates would be doing then.

"Will Sebastian Fischer be creating computer programs that take us to Mars? Will Charlie Wetherbee be running a Fortune 500 company? Maybe Katie McKeen will win gold rowing in the 2014 Olympics. Or maybe Zach Piser becomes the next Zac Efron."

As a balloon squealed over his head, providing fodder for an unscripted laugh line, valedictorian Charlie Wetherbee predicted the unexpected would likely prove to be more memorable for his classmates than life according to plan.

"It is because of this that I urge you ... to take risks, to go out on a limb," Wetherbee said. "Do what you love to do. And the moment you stop loving it, venture out again and find something else."

Whatever comes in their next life, salutatorian Andrew Dodds imagined college would be heaven for the class of 2011.

"We're standing here at the gates between high school and college, kind of in a limbo or a purgatory. … I guess this makes high school hell. … But all of us know that this wasn't hell. This was an environment where we grew, matured, learned, and had an absolutely fantastic life."