Class of 2008

Last night was graduation. This is the first High School graduation ceremony that I have EVER been to. It was a really nice ceremony. I got teary eyed more than once. This is the largest graduating class since the breakup of the "regional" boarding school a long time ago. This fact was touted again and again throughout the evening. I only know a handful of the graduates, but I do know the Valedictorian, Jessica Klejka. She is a really amazing young girl. I have featured here on the blog before a participant of the K300 dog sled race and the WINNER of the Junior Iditarod. Not surprisingly, her entire Valedictorian speech was centered around the analogy of sled dog racing. When she got up to the podium, she said that she just didnt feel comfortable and asked the audience to hold on a minute. Then, the lights went dim. After about a minute, we saw her headlamp shining and she announced that now she was comfortable enough to continue. The crowd got a real kick out of this. You can see her in the picture below with her headlamp on giving her speech.

She likened the graduates to sled dog pups and traced their path from kindergarten through graduation together. How they grew stronger, learned new skills, and kept on mushing together with the support of their parents, teachers, and community as the trainers, mushers, and checkpoints along their great race. As I sat their listening to Jessica's speech, I couldnt help but thing to myself what an amazing experience I'm getting here in Bethel. Where else in the world would the winner of the Junior Iditarod be the Valedictorian? Where else in the world would the Valendictorian's speech be centered around dog mushing?

Tillie was the only graduate that I got an invitation from. She was my student aid for the second semester and a tremendous help. She is going to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks for nursing. She got a few scholarships, as did almost everyone in this graduating class. As a class, they received over $236,000 in scholarships. How awesome is that?

Here they are tossing their caps. They are very close as a class, which is one of the advantages of going to a small high school. It seems to me that each class has a particular bond that I did not experience in a high school where my class was around 500.

And the balloons falling on them!

What an enjoyable evening. I feel really proud to be a part of a school that is doing such amazing things in a place that is so isolated. I have really enjoyed this year as a teacher at Bethel Regional High School. I am so glad I chose this place and that it chose me.
Everything happens for a reason.