Humor leavens perfect graduation day for South Windsor grads

Alex Wood, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
·3 min read

Jun. 21—Amid serious reflections on the past and future of South Windsor High School's Class of 2022, valedictorian Pranav Ramesh worked in some humor that also shed light on the high school experience.

SOUTH WINDSOR HIGH SCHOOL

VALEDICTORIAN: Pranav Ramesh.

SALUTATORIAN: Caroline Klein.

CLASS PRESIDENT: Anna Kim.

COMMEMORATIVE POEM BY: Olivia Trzaski.

During the graduation ceremony at Dunkin' Donuts Park in Hartford on Monday, Ramesh recalled "the stressful five minutes skimming SparkNotes before doing a reading check in English."

"That usually didn't end well," he added.

Later, while thanking the family members, teachers, and others who helped class members succeed, Ramesh casually dropped a reference to Google into the list.

The humor added to the relaxed feeling of a graduation held on a perfect last day of spring in a venue that could have accommodated a class with many times South Windsor's 303 graduates on the manicured baseball field. The stadium also had much room to spare for their family members and friends in the stands.

In urging his classmates to go on learning, Ramesh said, "Strive to understand patterns in anything and everything because nothing is truly random.

"Chasing curiosity will always lead to success," he added.

Salutatorian Caroline Klein worked some humor into her speech as well. Acknowledging that writing isn't her strongest skill, Klein said she wanted Olivia Trzaski, who wrote a commemorative poem for the class, to write her salutatory speech as well.

"But that would be wrong, and she said no," Klein told the audience.

Reflecting on the educational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Klein said, "Students and teachers alike have thrived in the face of these unprecedented times by doing the unprecedented."

Remembering the remote learning during the COVID shutdown of school buildings, she said, "Teachers had a full year of, 'You're muted again' or, even worse, 'You know you're not muted.'"

Class President Anna Kim riffed on musician Taylor Swift's query, "Why can we eat salad but not grass?"

Kim told her classmates not to do what the world tells them to do.

"Do what you believe is right," she said. "Be yourself. Be extraordinary. Be a grass eater."

Principal Frank Rizzuto noted that the COVID-19 disruption hit during the class during its sophomore year.

"Since the spring of your sophomore year, you wondered when things would return to normal," he told the graduates. Fortunately, normalcy did return in their senior year, he added.

Reflecting on modern life, Rizzuto said, "It seems like we are constantly on the go and caffeine fueled."

But he added that, in life, it is sometimes OK to enjoy a decaf instead.

Outside the stadium after the ceremony, graduate Nikhil Kikanamada said it felt "surreal" to be graduating after having thought about that moment throughout his high school career.

Classmate Tyler Russo described a combination of happy and sad feelings as he remembered people who he wished could have been at the ceremony but have passed on.

All the graduates wore a cord in the school colors with their gowns. But many, including Kikanamada and Russo, wore a number of other cords as well, each signifying a subject in which they had received A grades or better for three years.

Fellow graduate Derek Davis reflected on having made it through a long school career. Speaking of graduation, he said he would have "never thought it would have come."

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