Test of resilience carries them
Jun. 1—Despite more than a year's worth of challenging twists and turns due to COVID-19, Greenville ISD's graduation ceremony Friday looked and felt a lot more like a "regular" graduation.
Gone was the social distancing, and mask and rubber glove wearing of last year's ceremony, and many of the family members of the graduates who filled the stands seemed truly happy to be out at a public event. Many of the graduates' younger siblings were also walking about the stadium, getting back into the habit of "walking with swagger" in front of their friends.
However, more than anything, Friday's festivities were a celebration of the Class of 2021's resilience and perseverance through an early introduction to the uncertainties of life.
"During our junior year, most of us could drive and everything seemed to be going well until March 2020," said senior Grace Humphries in a speech in which she shared some of her reflections. "At first, we were glad that it (COVID-19) didn't happen during our senior year, but I guess it was Karma because it continued into ours.
"We may have been a little disappointed about not getting to experience 'the best year of high school' ... but we managed against every curve ball thrown at us, and we made it."
One of the main challenges that the class had to meet was taking more personal responsibility for completing their work when taking online classes, or as Valedictorian Garret Phillips said in his speech, "We went from sitting in classrooms to sitting in our bedrooms."
As it would turn out, that "bedroom classroom" proved more of a challenge for some students than others.
"My main priority was making sure that my son made it to school," Chad Porterfield said of his graduating son, Jacob. "Then, when COVID hit, all I had to do was wake him up, but he was in his room where he could just go back to bed and sleep, so it was an adjustment at first.
"He made it though, and he wants to eventually work in IT," Porterfield said.
However, the fact that instructional changes were making everyone work harder, including the teachers, the situation pushed more students to help their classmates along through assignments.
"Adjusting to online learning wasn't the easiest at first, but she figured it out pretty quickly" Layne Russell said about his graduating granddaughter, Presley Van Winkle. "The kids became really good at calling each other up and helping each other get their work done and turn it in."
It also marked the final graduation with Heath Jarvis serving as the principal of GHS, as he was recently given the position of chief human resources officer for the district.
In addition to the adjustments that all the students had to make with their school work and missing out on seeing their friends as much as they would like, the Class of 2021 also suffered a sad loss when one of their classmates, Aramis Mora, died in December when her home was crashed into by a car.
"One of the things I remember most about her was her laugh, and I used to tease her about it, but now its the thing I miss hearing the most," said once of her friends, Valentin De La Garza, in a speech at the ceremony.
Despite the difficulty and loss that the senior class experienced these last two years, it was acknowledged multiple times during Friday's ceremony that the shared challenge has helped shape the class as it ventures out into the work force, college and the military, or as Salutatorian Jordan Hunnicutt put it, "We are all connected by this journey that we've traveled through together."
