MEMBER SIGN IN
Not a member? Become one today!
         iBerkshires     Southern Berkshire Chamber     Lee Chamber     Lenox Chamber     Berkshire Community College    
Search
Monument Mountain Graduates 'One of a Kind Students'
By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
06:24PM / Sunday, June 05, 2016
Print | Email  



Monument graduates were told to remember the past and to not stress too much about the future. See more photos here.

LENOX, Mass. — Monument Mountain Regional High School's class orator Emma Adler wouldn't be the same Emma if it weren't for band director Jeffrey Stevens.

Adler found her passion in music through her six years of working with Stevens. But she wasn't the only one. Stevens has been part of the school's Music Department for 34 years and is now retiring. Adler contacted thousands of musicians who were inspired by Stevens and collected letters of thanks.

For Adler, music is what helped build who she is today and on Sunday, she was just one of 132 students graduating who were inspired in some way by the teachers at Monument Mountain.

"Beyond academics, beyond standardized testing, and beyond grades that put labels on our self worth, we are a class of one-of-a-kind students," Adler said.

She read off qualities a number of students possess — athletes, artists, musicians, scientists, and writers — and questioned what those people would be like without the teachers who didn't just grade papers but saw "genius" in each student. Now those students will be heading in different directions as the class of 2016 received diplomas during the Great Barrington school's 49th commencement.

On  the stage of the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood — a place where Adler herself has performed — the students entered a new chapter in their lives.

"We depend on you. We need your goodness in the world," Superintendent of Schools Peter Dillon told them.

For each and every student, the time in high school meant something different, said salutatorian Caroline Sprague.

"I can never speak to the experiences of everyone here. For some, myself included, high school was a safe haven. But for others it was hell," Sprague said.

Sprague asked her class to put off thinking about the future for a moment and recognize the past.

"I encourage all of you today to take some time over the next few days and tangle yourselves up in the past. Read old letters, revisit old memories. Remember before we go out to a world that does not know us yet what has made us the people we are," Sprague said.

She said not all of high school was the greatest, recalling a story of stress when a teacher told her she needed a near perfect score on an AP exam to get into an Ivy League school and she walked out of the class. In the future, she hopes students have more of good experiences than bad but nonetheless, each moment helped shape the graduates' lives.

"Don't look ahead of you. Don't envision your bright futures. Don't anticipate the struggles you will face either. Take a second instead to look behind you. The only the reason I am up here is a particular cocktail of genetics and guidance. My incredible parents happened to give me certain things — very flat feet, brown hair, a really useful knack for memorization — and then actively worked to give me other things — opportunities, experiences, love. I am no salutatorian because I am special. I am salutatorian because they are special," Sprague said to loud cheers.

"Monument has made us special. Since my first day it has been primarily a place of endless possibilities and offered a wide variety of experiences."

Valedictorian Isabelle Morley said there is a "timekeeper" on the "outskirts of your peripheral vision" that continues to tick and seems to grow faster and faster as the days pile up. She asked her classmates not be be paralyzed by fear of the unknown or by focusing on the moments that "slipped through the cracks in my own hands" and wondering how things could be different. Instead, to reach out and grab the moments because time is "our most important, limited resource."

"Time waits for no one. Life continues around me, a flurry of routine. You wake up, go to school study, repeat. Wake up, go to school, study, repeat. Each day is only a minor variant of its predecessor and I am caught helpless in the middle. Except, I am not helpless of time's moving finger, no one is. Too often we forget this as the fear of the unknown and our tendency for comfort overwhelms us," Morley said.

"You come home exhausted from work, perhaps after a long, tiring day, you only feel capable of eating ice cream and watching television. But these events are not a fixed touchstone in your life no matter how much it may feel as if they are. The moment when you cross the threshold and set down your keys, you are faced with a choice. Do you take the path of least resistance? Or do you draw on the last reserves of your energy and choose differently? Each moment we let pass us by is an opportunity, an opportunity to choose."

School Committee Chairman Stephen Bannon told the students to continue to challenge themselves and not to regret anything that they could have done differently. He told the students to keep trying new things.

"Yes, sometimes there is failure. But there is also learning and growth," he said, telling the students to build on the lessons they good from Monument Mountain.

Bannon presented each of the students with diplomas as they walked across the Tanglewood stage to cheers and beach balls being tossed around in celebration. Principal Marianne Young introduced each speaker as well as honored Stevens for his time at the school. Stevens then led the band in the processional march as the graduates left the Shed, into the pouring rain, and into their futures.

0Comments
More Featured Stories
SouthBerkshires.com is owned and operated by: Boxcar Media 102 Main Sreet, North Adams, MA 01247 -- T. 413-663-3384
© 2024 Boxcar Media LLC - All rights reserved