MONROE — Song lyrics were notable during the class of 2019 graduation ceremony at Monroe High School on June 2.

Senior Garret Schroeder was the focal point of a piece he wrote himself as he sat at the keyboard with classmates and fellow band members. A handful of senior performers had solo parts. Schroeder’s solo was a vocal one as his hands roamed the keys, playing out the notes for the song, “The Devil’s Throne,” which he had written himself.

As he ended the tune, the lyrics were a direct address to the parents of graduates.

“Look at me now, I’m in a cap and gown,” Schroeder sang in a slowing lilt. “I hope you’re proud, I made it out OK.”

The song choice for the choir, “In My Life” by the Beatles, reflected on years of memories made and lost to time. 

“There are places I’ll remember all my life, though some have changed,” the group, with roughly a dozen senior choir members, sang to the packed gymnasium. “Some forever, not for better. Some have gone, and some remain; all these places had their moments.”

The words remark on being unable to “lose affection for people and things that went before.” The sadness of leaving those places and people behind is especially palpable for a class which suffered loss during its high school years. 

Senior student speaker Grant Gogin began his address with a moment of silence. It was to honor three students who had died in a car accident in early February of the class’ sophomore year. In the ceremony program, a page usually left blank read, “In Loving Memory of our Classmates who could not be with us today — Gage Noble, Anya Teasdale and Joseph Wyss.”

There were laughs as well. Gogin ran through lists of inside jokes as his fellow 174 classmates laughed along about their preference for Taylor Swift and mullets, mishaps in the chemistry lab and a senior prank administration was only just made aware had taken place.

He also talked about 18-year-olds and how they differ from adults. Some day, they will know the responsibility of true adulthood, Gogin said.

“You may think that who you are now is who you’ll always be, and that you’ll never change,” Gogin said. “But I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong.”

In looking back, senior Nate Zavala talked about beginning his time with the class roughly three years ago. He reflected on memories, but specifically noted a few classmates for their memorable attributes. 

Like Schroeder, who Zavala referred to as his brother, and who taught him valuable lessons about pizza making; Ava Lovett for her “blunt honesty” and teaching him it’s possible to “live with one and half lungs and still manage to smile and breathe easily;” or Gabe Witt, who Zavala said is “somewhat of a poster child for what a Monroe Cheesemaker truly is.”

Witt was the male recipient of the Citizenship Award. MHS Principal Chris Medenwaldt said Witt is “the definition of what a teammate should be,” a person who sincerely wants to know how well people are doing as he greets them in the halls. Witt, who wants to go to Mars some day as an astronaut, balances work and three sports while volunteering to tutor math during his lunch hour. Medenwaldt said everyone, from student to faculty, describes the senior with words like “kind, thoughtful, smart, polite.”

There were more high emotions as Medenwaldt noted the female recipient of the award was a student he was able to learn a lot about in her four years at MHS; his daughter, Kajen Medenwaldt. Fighting back tears, the principal said though he worried over whether people would assume his daughter received the award because of her relation to him, he knew the distinguished honors graduate who serves in the National Honor Society deserved the recognition. 

“I’ve learned a lot by watching my favorite student,” he said, noting that Kajen never shies away from the people she cares about and who she is, and that every day the aspiring first grade teacher remains “contagiously happy.”

The class motto, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” was echoed in sentiment by Zavala as he stood in awe of what his classmates have outlined for themselves after leaving Monroe. 

“All of these students know what it means to fight for what you want in life,” Zavala said. “I believe that you do not lose until you give up, and the class of 2019 has not given up.”