NEW SCOTLAND — Memories and flowers flooded the Lydia A. Tobler Performing Arts Center at the Clayton A. Bouton High School graduation on June 26.

The evening ceremony began with a slideshow, designed by senior Alexandria Relyea, who graduated with high honors and plans to attend the State University of New York College at Geneseo. The slideshow featured baby pictures of her classmates that, in the blink of an eye, transitioned into senior portraits, echoing the feelings of parents in the room waiting to see their now-grown children graduate.

The Capital Region Celtic Pipe Band entered the auditorium in an almost funereal procession, signaling the end of one stage of life and the beginning of the next. The band was followed by the seniors, who entered the stage to the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance.” The students each carried a yellow rose, a tradition slightly altered from Voorheesville’s previous exercises that offered diplomas and roses to those crossing the stage.

Seniors Schuyler King, who will attend George Washington University, and Lydia Parker, who plans to attend SUNY Plattsburgh, welcomed the audience and led the pledge of allegiance. Both King and Parker graduated with academic honors.

Seniors Liam Brennan, who, with academic high honors, chose to attend Trinity College in Dublin, and Relyea performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” in unison.

A newcomer’s view

Kaylee DePrato was chosen by her classmates to address them. DePrato will attend Hudson Valley Community College. She graduated with academic honors, evidenced by her comfortable public-speaking style.

“This was really overwhelming, and we did it,” DePrato reassured her friends about their high school careers. Many of the students, she said, balanced school with jobs.

DePrato said that she moved to Voorheesville two years ago. As an outsider who had not grown up with her classmates, she said, “I see a side of you no one else was able to see. I was able to dabble in all of your friend groups, and bond with you in a special way.”

During high school, she said, there may have been misunderstandings between faculty and students at times.

“We’re all here, so we obviously did a good job,” she said.

She spoke about their principal, Patrick Corrigan, who was formerly an assistant principal.

“Mr. Corrigan is now the principal principal,” DePrato said. “He is a genuine, real guy. I don’t know if I would have been able to get through this without him.” 

DePrato also shared memories and appreciation for other staff members.

“OK. Back to us,” she said, to laughter from the crowd. When she arrived in Voorheesville, Relyea welcomed her, she said. Soon, other girls did, too.

“So, thanks. You guys saved me from being a really awkward loner,” DePrato said. She met yet other classmates as time went on, she said.

“It was really cool. Well, it wasn’t that cool, but it really was cool,” she joked. “Having no background knowledge of you, I don’t need to know what happened here before I got here.”

She said that, as many of the students in Voorheesville knew each other since birth, they may be sick of each other’s company.

“People are supposed to grow apart,” she said. “I can’t even explain how much I love you all.

“It’s time for us to grow up,” DePrato continued. “It’s time for us to do great things.”

Senior chorus members, accompanied on keyboard by Mary Abba Gleason, filled the front of the stage to sing “Bye, Bye Blackbird,” a song reminiscent of the district’s mascot, the blackbird. 

“Believe your flyness”

John Bennett Mackay, the class salutatorian, then addressed his classmates. Mackay graduated with academic high honors, and will attend Haverford College and CalTech. (See related story.) He began his salutatory speech with a quote by entertainer Kanye West.

“Believe your flyness. Show your kindness,” Mackay said. With good humor, he shared with the audience his brother’s financial incentive for each West quote he squeezed into his speech.

Mackay also quoted from a film, “My Dinner with Andre,” that touched on the themes of self-exploration; “Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going?” Mackay told his classmates that each of them had answered those questions during their college searches in myriad essays.

“Who are we,” he asked the class of 2015, “and why are we here? We sit as one, but underneath there are many groups. [We took a] unique journey to every one of these seats.”

He asked his classmates, who shared his childhood, to show their gratitude to the people who supported them, like parents, teachers, friends, and peers.

“Where am I going? I don’t really know. The only certainty is that there is uncertainty. By acting the role of yourself, you answer those questions,” he said.

Mackay, humorously seeking to maximize his finances, ended his address with the West quote, “Homie, I’m graduated.”

“Short and sweet”

The class made a financial gift of three hydration stations to be placed in the athletic wing of the school. The class officers, all members of the valedictory class, meaning they have high grades — Alexandra Cunningham, who will attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Nicole Brower, who plans to attend Colgate University; Benjamin Denn, who will attend West Point; and Hannah Suib, who will attend Brandeis University — shared the announcement of the class gift.

Valedictorian Erik Patak then spoke, sharing his love of chemistry with the audience. (See related story.) He crossed to the podium, then walked offstage after hinting, “Hold on one second.”

On his return, Patak said his address was like himself.

“It’s like me, short and sweet,” he said. “It’s about us — all of us. We are the class of 2015. We have learned together, grown together.”

“Street smarts aren’t my thing,” he joked, adding that he wanted to talk about attitude.

“The key to happiness is attitude,” Patak said. “Attitude is a big thing.”

Patak held up a glass beaker with clear liquid that he had grabbed from backstage.

Some see the glass as half empty or half full, he said.

Patak spoke of the attitudes of optimists or pessimists, of pragmatists who attempt to drink the water, and of chemists who warn that the liquid may not be water, before he added a second solution that turned the “water” opaque.

“The nerd in me cannot resist a chemistry demonstration,” Patak said to applause.

He urged his classmates to take their bad days and turn their problems into learning experiences.

As his friend, Mackay, had done, Patak used familiarity with a film to reach his audience, quoting the “Pirates of the Caribbean” character Captain Jack Sparrow.

“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem,” Patak quoted. “Savvy?” The audience erupted with laughter at Patak’s impression of Sparrow.

Patak also noted that a cliché, like “We would not be here without you,” can be true.

Life, he concluded, is full of both adversity and joy.

In life, as in the glass of water, instead of seeing the glass as half-full or half-empty, Patak said, “Try to fill it to the top.”

Superintendent’s poetic farewell

Cunningham and Denn introduced retiring Superintendent Dr. Teresa Thayer Snyder.

“We will cherish and appreciate her contributions,” Denn said.

Snyder, addressing Voorheesville for her final time, said that teachers ask their students to take many academic risks. For her remarks, she said, “I thought I would take a risk.”

Snyder read a poem she penned called “Birthing a Blackbird.” (See “Birthing a Blackbird.”)

In her poem, she described the graduates — once elementary students — as “hatchlings, featherless little beings” with “funny little limbs akimbo.” As middle schoolers, the seniors were “fledglings,” “jabber-wocking through this conundrum period,” “preparing for flight but not quite yet,” she read.

Once in high school, Snyder said, the seniors became “fully feathered, a handsome flock,” “leaving our nests, prepared to commence solo flight.”

“Blessings on you all, beloved Blackbirds, blessings on you!” Snyder concluded.

“The Beyoncé of Voorheesville”

Seniors Tyler Snow, who will attend Hudson Valley Community College, and Grace Yang, who graduated with academic high honors and plans to attend Boston University, introduced the guest speaker, business teacher Heather Garvey.

“Mrs. Garvey provides the best advice you can get,” Snow said.

“Mrs. Garvey is a strong, independent woman who ‘don’t need no man,’” Yang said, to laughter from the audience.

“Yes, I am the Beyoncé of Voorheesville high school,” Garvey straight lined. “It’s true. Yes, it is.”

Garvey spoke directly to the graduates when she said, “I do know you. We are so  much more than teacher and students. We are family.”

She said she would speak only of plans, priorities, marriage, success, and friendship.

“Get comfortable,” she quipped.

She said that she had changed her major on the erroneous advice of a professor, but that she had then met her husband in her new studies.

“No regrets,” she said to the students. “My path led me to you.”

She shared her thoughts about careers and priorities with them.

“Make sure your work does not define who you are,” she said. She realized she needed to adjust her own thinking when she had surgery and her children were just 4 and 8 years old.

“Teaching never entered my mind,” Garvey said. Focusing only on a career makes “you lose out on experiences,” she said.

“It’s what you do, not who you are,” Garvey said about a career. “You may love your job, but your job will never love you back.

She said that she and her husband, Brian, have been married for 21 years.

“My hope is that each of you will find your own Brian Garvey,” she said. Her students had told her that their “number-one priority for a spouse is that they are ‘smokin’ hot,’ Garvey joked.

“None of you are ordinary. I never want you to marry anyone who thinks you are average — not someone who says you are not worth it,” she said. “You are.”

“Hotness…fades. Um, Brian, I’m not talking about you,” Garvey whispered in an aside. “You’re as hot as the day I met you. Please take me for ice cream.”

She suggested that students follow the advice of airline assistants who say to put one’s own oxygen mask on before helping another.

“If you can’t breathe, you can’t assist others,” Garvey said. She urged students to take care of themselves mentally, physically, and spiritually.

“It isn’t selfish. It’s necessary,” she said.

Garvey quoted Buddha, as well as Chinese proverbs.

“Slow down, and be mindful of the moment,” she said.

She spoke of the song, “The Climb,” and said, “Climbing that mountain is how character is born.”

“Keep moving forward, always forward,” she said. “You are not quitters…Carry on and keep climbing that mountain.”

Garvey told the graduates to “figure out who your friends are.” She said that the students are not the same people they were in first grade.

“The people you will meet will only know the mature you,” she said.

“I know that you have to go. I’ll be standing at my door” but the students will no longer come by, Garvey said, as the students move on with their lives. “You have made quite an impact on mine.”

“You are funny, brutally honest, and very caring,” Garvey told the graduates. “It made me want to come to work every day. You made me a better person. I really and truly treasure you.”

With a tight voice, Garvey said, “Clayton A. Bouton will always be your home.”

She noted the many teachers in ceremonial garb who filled the room.

“Just like me, they care about you. They are here to celebrate you,” she said.

The seniors, followed by the entire audience, offered Garvey a standing ovation.

Principal Corrigan presented the seniors and school board President Timothy Blow handed out diplomas, beginning with Mackay, the salutatorian.

Students waiting to receive diplomas hugged Garvey before striding across the stage. Finally, one student remained.

“Accepting the applause for the class of 2015,” said Corrigan, “valedictorian Erik Patak.”

Once the entire class was seated and announced as newly graduated, students cheered and mortarboards flew, before students made a decorous exit led by faculty.
Outdoors, the Voorheesville faculty lined the exit and applauded the students as they made their way into a sunny future.