Looking toward the future: Mooresville High School celebrates 2022 graduation ceremony
MOORESVILLE — With more than 300 members of the class of 2022, Mooresville High School celebrated its 138th graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 28.
As with tradition, this year's ceremony included speeches from the class valedictorian and co-salutatorians.
This year's valedictorian was Isabel Shostrand.
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In the fall, Shostrand will attend Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to major in chemical engineering to prepare for medical school.
During her speech, Shostrand discussed the future of the graduates — while understanding that the future is unknown.
"The next steps in life look different for all of us," Shostrand said. "Some of us are moving away to college, joining the military or starting our career as SoundCloud rappers. No matter where you're going, what you're doing or how you're getting there — you need to set goals for yourself."
She would go on to note that happiness is an important thing for the graduates to strive for.
"There are so many definitions of happiness and what it means to be joyous, content and fortunate in life," Shostrand said. "Some people are content with what they have and others have an insatiable desire to do more, be more and always have more."
This year's graduating class had two salutatorians, LeeLoo Craig and Nick Wiley.
Craig will attend Indiana University Bloomington as a psychology major in the fall.
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During her speech, Craig thanked teachers, administrators and the parents and guardians of the students.
"As I sat down to write this speech, the day that it was due, I found myself struggling to reminisce on the high school experience and sum it up in just a few paragraphs," Craig noted.
Craig discussed success during her speech Saturday morning.
She noted that during elementary school, there was a narrow definition of success.
"Everyone's achievements and academic ability was boiled down to simple marks on papers," she said. "This labeled students early on as good students or bad students, even if they were both equally as intelligent."
Once the graduates walk out of the high school's doors, Craig said, they all start over.
"Whether you graduated in the top 10% of our class, or the bottom 10% of our class, how you take advantage of your opportunities in the next five to 10 years will have the biggest impact on your future."
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Wiley will attend Indiana Wesleyan University where he will study computer engineering.
"Today marks a new chapter in our lives," Wiley said. "Some people will go to college, some will go to trade school, some will go straight to the workforce (and) some will go to the military. Regardless, we have all achieved something special. We have graduated high school."
He noted that he was lucky to have the high school experience he had.
During his freshman year, seniors accepted him in both of his sports.
Like many around the country, the COVID-19 pandemic robbed Wiley of the 2020 baseball season.
"This made me realize something," Wiley said. "I realized how fragile time is on Earth. Until COVID hit, there would always be another time, another baseball game, another day of school. COVID put this all into question."
Wiley challenged everyone to learn one new thing everyday.
"Find that subject that peaks your interest and learn about it," he added.
The May 28 ceremony can be viewed online at https://bit.ly/3GAPLME.
Contact Reporter-Times editor Lance Gideon at lgideon@reporter-times.com or 765-342-1543. Follow him on Twitter: @LanceOGideon.
This article originally appeared on The Reporter Times: Mooresville schools graduation celebrates more than 300 students
