MONROE - Members of the class of 2016 embraced their paths to the future on Sunday during Monroe High School's 143rd commencement ceremony.
Clad in red and white, the graduates listened as classmates told them to write their own story by making an impact on the world and to embrace courage as they face possible challenges, while an eccentric teacher gave one last lesson.
Graduate Eric Tabaka talked about the concept of welcoming others and how his journey to graduate from MHS began with his family relocating before his freshman year. Though Tabaka said it would be difficult to believe now, when he was beginning high school, he was shy and nervous. However, the welcome arms of fellow classmates allowed him to flourish in his environment.
"First impressions can significantly shape a person's future," Tabaka said.
He added that wherever his fellow 169 graduates go on in life, they should keep a welcoming mindset. Tabaka compared life to a personal journey told through the medium of a book. Each beginning and ending an excerpt in an epic volume of life experiences.
"This chapter is now over, but we each have our own book to fill," Tabaka said. "Other activities you would never have imagined will fill pages and pages of your life story. My wish is that your story is like a great book; one that you just can't put down."
Tabaka was awarded the Citizenship Award alongside classmate Samantha Curtis. Curtis plans to attend Carroll College for accounting, and Tabaka will go on to Augustana College to study music education. The class had 35 honor graduates out the total 170 graduates.
Science teacher Mark Dickson used his opportunity at the podium to deliver one last lecture on physics. Glossing over different theories, he emphasized the importance of valuing everything about life in the moment rather than trying to fill each day with more.
"What matters most is not how much you have in life, but how close you are to the things you have," Dickson said. "You made a difference in Monroe and you make that difference through how close you were to others while you were here."
He also told his former students to never stop looking at each day as an opportunity to learn, and to "become the best student of your life."
Graduate Maddie Kallgren kept the mood light with the opening of her speech, sharing jokes about school mishaps, how to be like Beyonce and hashtags, but ended on a much more serious note. A rhyme about the facets of school they will all miss once they are gone devolved into a story about Malala Yousafzai, an 18-year-old Pakistani activist who stood up to the Taliban by speaking out against the unequal education of girls in her country and across the world. She almost died in 2012 in her effort to make a difference, but Yousafzai has since been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest person in history to be so honored, as she continues to stand up for the right of young women to be educated.
Kallgren told the story of Yousafzai, calling her a "symbol of someone strong, fearless and who stands up for what she believes in." Kallgren asked her classmates what life would have been like without the chance for an education at all and said that each individual can make a difference if they are willing to be as strong as people like Yousafzai.
"One voice, no matter how small, has the ability to change the world," Kallgren said. "The degree we're about to receive is our ticket to change the world. The world is listening; what will your message be?"
Clad in red and white, the graduates listened as classmates told them to write their own story by making an impact on the world and to embrace courage as they face possible challenges, while an eccentric teacher gave one last lesson.
Graduate Eric Tabaka talked about the concept of welcoming others and how his journey to graduate from MHS began with his family relocating before his freshman year. Though Tabaka said it would be difficult to believe now, when he was beginning high school, he was shy and nervous. However, the welcome arms of fellow classmates allowed him to flourish in his environment.
"First impressions can significantly shape a person's future," Tabaka said.
He added that wherever his fellow 169 graduates go on in life, they should keep a welcoming mindset. Tabaka compared life to a personal journey told through the medium of a book. Each beginning and ending an excerpt in an epic volume of life experiences.
"This chapter is now over, but we each have our own book to fill," Tabaka said. "Other activities you would never have imagined will fill pages and pages of your life story. My wish is that your story is like a great book; one that you just can't put down."
Tabaka was awarded the Citizenship Award alongside classmate Samantha Curtis. Curtis plans to attend Carroll College for accounting, and Tabaka will go on to Augustana College to study music education. The class had 35 honor graduates out the total 170 graduates.
Science teacher Mark Dickson used his opportunity at the podium to deliver one last lecture on physics. Glossing over different theories, he emphasized the importance of valuing everything about life in the moment rather than trying to fill each day with more.
"What matters most is not how much you have in life, but how close you are to the things you have," Dickson said. "You made a difference in Monroe and you make that difference through how close you were to others while you were here."
He also told his former students to never stop looking at each day as an opportunity to learn, and to "become the best student of your life."
Graduate Maddie Kallgren kept the mood light with the opening of her speech, sharing jokes about school mishaps, how to be like Beyonce and hashtags, but ended on a much more serious note. A rhyme about the facets of school they will all miss once they are gone devolved into a story about Malala Yousafzai, an 18-year-old Pakistani activist who stood up to the Taliban by speaking out against the unequal education of girls in her country and across the world. She almost died in 2012 in her effort to make a difference, but Yousafzai has since been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest person in history to be so honored, as she continues to stand up for the right of young women to be educated.
Kallgren told the story of Yousafzai, calling her a "symbol of someone strong, fearless and who stands up for what she believes in." Kallgren asked her classmates what life would have been like without the chance for an education at all and said that each individual can make a difference if they are willing to be as strong as people like Yousafzai.
"One voice, no matter how small, has the ability to change the world," Kallgren said. "The degree we're about to receive is our ticket to change the world. The world is listening; what will your message be?"