At the outset of Herricks High School’s 55th annual commencement, graduating students extended greetings in a dozen different languages to emphasize the diversity of the school’s population.
The student speakers who followed them expressed common ideas in exhorting their classmates to build on their shared experiences as they move on to make their marks on the world outside their high school.
“What I know is that there is a place for us in this universe. And it’s time for us to go out and find it,” class salutatorian Esther Chen said. “Let’s find our passions, take our dreams and find the future.”
She told her classmates they had created a lot of memories together and reminded them “this is our house and it will always be someplace to return to.”
Class president Louelle Serrano said she was neither feeling sad about “the end of our times together,” nor anxious about the future.
“If I can offer any words of wisdom from my 17 years of life, be open to new experiences. Be willing to try something new each and every day,” Serrano said. “I was brought up in a place to dream. I was taught if you want it, take it.”
She said there was never any project too big for the class of 2014 and ended by saying it had been an honor to be part of the class.
Valedictorian Sachit Singal said some faculty members he spoke with while preparing his speech told him the class was “second to none” and one of the best classes Herricks High had ever seen.
“We are ready to carve our niche and take our responsibility and calling to make this world better than we find it,” Singal said. “If we take one thing from our high school experience, it is that our possibilities are limitless.”
Retiring teachers Susan Johnson and Jane Morales used the Herricks letters as the first letters of key words in their address to the graduates.
The “H” stood for “heart” according to Johnson, a 40-year business teacher, who told the graduates, “You have left an imprint on your heart.”
Recalling that she had recently lost her husband to dementia, she said, “Take your pain and turn it into something new.”
Following Johnson and Morales, senior members of the Herricks High Chamber Singers sang about seizing the day, performing “No Day But Today,” and delivered their signature song “May the Road Rise Up to Meet You.” They concluded with the Herricks Alma Mater song.
Near the beginning of the ceremonies on the Herricks football field, Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth said he had a special feeling for the class of 2014 because they “were toddling into kindergarten” at the same time he was “toddling” into his job as superintendent of the district.
“You’ve done a lot for the [school] district. I hope we’ve done as much for you,” Bierwirth told them.
Herricks school board Vice President Nancy Feinstein, whose son Brian was among the graduates, delivered a simple message.
“Get a life, a life where you are not alone. Find people who you love and who love you. Remember that life is not easy – it is work. And it is worth it,” she said. “Get a life, a life where you are generous. Send a thoughtful email, send a card, hug your parents, work in a soup kitchen, tutor a young child.”
Members of the Herricks High School Band had played the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” processional as the graduates took their seats earlier.
But after the graduates turned the tassels on their mortarboards and – in keeping with tradition – tossed them into the air, tradition dissolved into a scene of emotional chaos, as the graduates embraced each other and lingered with family and friends on the field.
They posed for pictures and wished each other well.
