51 Plymouth seniors celebrate graduation day
May 23—PLYMOUTH — Fifty-one seniors said farewell Sunday afternoon during graduation ceremonies at Plymouth High School.
"If you have been around me this past month or so I have probably asked you what I should write my speech about, because I had no idea what I wanted to talk about with you all today," valedictorian Kelsey McCoy said. "Of course, everyone I had talked to gave me more or less the same answer, 'it is your speech, write it over whatever you want, just avoid writing about the normal humdrum valedictorian speech topics often heard at graduations, and of course, no one likes long speeches so make it short.'
"So, naturally, I procrastinated writing this. Until I was doing an assignment for my psychology course on human development and realized I wanted to talk about change, so my speech today is brought to you by great psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson. However, I know you did not come here to learn about great psychologists, so I will get to the point. First, I would like to acknowledge the individuals who have helped us to change and become a different version of ourselves. Every one of us has a special individual in our lives who has helped to shape us into the people we are today. Some of these individuals may include parents, teachers, staff, administration, or even coaches we may have had over these past thirteen years. As we get ready to walk across this stage and get our diplomas today we would like to say a huge thank you to those who have helped guide us into the great individuals we now are.
"Life is inevitable when it comes to change but it's our attitudes about that change that define us. We can look at change as a positive within our lives or we can look at it in a way that downplays the benefits it will bring us. However we look at change, we must accept that every decision we have made and every change those decisions have brought us has led to this very moment and point in our lives. Life always has a funny way of forcing us to change, forcing us to become the people we want to be and forcing us to reach the goals we have set for ourselves.
"In a way, those goals and aspirations help mold us into the individuals we aspire to be, by reaching for those goals we have become the individuals we had set for ourselves. With that, no two people are ever the same, we all have very different goals and aspirations for ourselves to reach that will guide us to the various pathways we will be taking. These past couple of years we have been faced with several decisions that have helped change the direction our lives may be taking. These decisions can include going to college, going into the military, going into the workforce, and etc. Out of these decisions we are faced with trying to establish ourselves, or who we want to be as an outcome of the decisions we have made. Some of us know exactly who we want to be and what we want to do with our lives and some of us have no idea, but it took effort and self reflection to reach this point in our lives, overcoming several decisions that have helped us to get here. We have only experienced a small portion of changes that can happen within our lives and we have many more years that will provide us with new and exciting ones.
"We all have many great things in store for our futures and I believe in all of our capabilities. So with that I will leave you with this quote by Socrates, 'the secret to change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.' So here is to building the new in our lives, congratulations class of 2022 on graduating.
Salutatorian Ashlee Steward talked to her classmates.
"First, I would like to say that I'm honored to have this opportunity to be able to talk in front of you all today, it means so much to me. I would have to say though I've always been a pretty quiet person so I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous so please bear with me. Also I know as graduates, we want to get our diplomas so I will try to make this short and sweet.
"To start off, thank you all for being here today. To the staff and faculty here at PHS we thank you for supporting and helping us throughout these past 13 plus years. Thank you to our parents and family members that have supported us and pushed us to be our best selves. I know everyone of us has a special someone in our lives that has helped us personally during our academic careers. It may have been a teacher, a coach, a family member, or any other person in our life. Some of those people have helped us get out of our shell, gain confidence, or inspired us to reach for our dreams. So from us graduates, we thank you for everything.
"So now to the Class of 2022, we have been together almost everyday for 13 years straight and now after today it comes to an end. We were once little kids sitting at kindergarten graduation thinking 2022 was so far away, but here we are, together again on the day we thought would never come soon enough.
"As we get our diplomas today and face our futures, I hope we will remember all of the lessons we have learned and the memories we have made. When we walk across this stage we will close this chapter of our lives and begin a new one. We will be making new memories and learning new lessons. Some of us might go to college, some might go to the workforce, and some of us will be serving our country. As we might have all gone down the same exact road together for the past thirteen years, we are now branching off onto our own paths. We get to choose where we go and what we do with our future.
"So let me leave you guys with a quote 'You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.' —Dr. Seuss.
"So as we all go down our separate paths doing our own things. Best of wishes to whatever you all chose to do with your future because it starts today. Thank you."
Here is the list of this year's graduates and their future plans:
ANNA RENEE ARNOLD — TSCC
AARON WALKER ARTRIP — UToledo
BRADLEY RAY BARNETT — undecided
JOSHUA WALKER BEEBE — work
JOSEPH ALAN BENAVIDES — undecided
LANDON REEVES BLANKENSHIP — Kent State U
NATALIE IDELLA CHANNING — UFindlay
CARTER ALLEN CHARLTON — work
ALLISON PAIGE CHEW — work
NICHOLAS DAVID COLE — AU
DAMEON LORENZO CONKLIN — work
KATELYNN MERCEDES CORWIN — undecided
GABRIEL BRENT COX — work
NATHANIEL EDWIN CRABTREE — TSCC
ABBIE MAE DURBIN — Tiffin U
ALIYA ANN ECHELBARGER — OSU-ATI
ZOEY SHU ENDICOTT — SVA NYC
SHAWN RYAN ENGLISH — NCSC
SKYLAR ELIZABETH FRANCIS — TSCC
SYDNEY GRACE GIBSON — OSU-M
ETHAN THOMAS GILLUM — Undecided
ZETH RAYMOND GOTH — undecided
AUSTINE RAYLEEN GUESS — undecided
HALEIGH MACHELE HARDMAN — CSU
ABBIGAIL FELICITY SAGE HINES — OSU-M
RILEY NEVAEH KENNARD — OSU-M
CHRISTOPHER PATRICK KENT — work
MEGAN ELIZABETH LINDENBERGER — AU
KELSEY MICHELLE MCCOY — Baldwin Wallace
DENVER ALAN MESSMORE — work
CLAYTON LEE MILLER — TSCC
LOGAN DAVID NICHOLS — Marines
HAYLEE MCKENNA PRIEST — work
NICKOLAS ANDREW ROBERTS — work
JACOB LYLE ROBINSON — work
JONATHAN DANIEL ROGERS — undecided
CHARLES RICHARD SCHAUB — work
KYLER JOSEPH SHEPHERD — work
ERIN RENEE STEVENS — NCSC
ASHLEE LYNN STEWARD — OSU
LEXUS IRENE SWANK — work
JOVI MAKENNA TACKETT — EKU
EVIE GRACE THORNSBERRY — work
ANGEL MARIE VAZQUEZ — undecided
JOSEPH BRIAN VINCENT — NCSC
KAYLEE ANN WALLACE — NCSC
COLE KENNETH WENTZ — Army
ADAM JOSEPH WORKMAN — ONUH
ALEXA CHARLESE WYANT — college
ELIZABETH ROSE ZIDARIN — work
