Robbinsville Class of 2022 overcomes COVID-19 challenges to snag diplomas
Robbinsville – A graduating class of 86 seniors – their time at Robbinsville High School punctuated by COVID-19 – received their diplomas at Big Oaks Stadium on Friday.
Despite unprecedented challenges from COVID during more than half their time in high school, 75-out-of-86 earned one or more distinctions from the school.
Family and friends packed the bleachers at Big Oaks Stadium under a partly cloud sky and near-perfect weather.
The ceremony was both solemn, hopeful, joyful, sentimental and sometimes comical. Some graduates couldn’t resist rubbing Robbinsville High School Principal David Matheson’s bald head, which he accepted with good cheer. Matheson was even light-hearted when Jacob Eli Worrell, the last to receive his diploma, sprayed the principal with Silly String.
Upon being proclaimed graduates, the Class of ’22 moved their tassels from right to left and fired off confetti before being dismissed and released to the world and the life in front of them.
Several graduating seniors were invited to deliver remarks during the ceremony.
Klancy Stevens provided a tribute to parents, who provided time, money, prayer and advice.
“Parents and family have been there through it all,” he said.
Cheyenne Rowland provided a tribute to teachers, saying that teachers encounter students when they are happiest and angriest.
“Teaching is not an easy job. Teachers deal with serious frustrations, all with smiles on their faces,” she observed.
In her tribute to her friends, Baylee Parham gave a year-by-year recount of significant events starting from their earliest school years. The Senior Class of 2019 greeted the Freshmen Class at the front entrance to the school on their first day in high school, easing any first-day jitters the 9th-graders had.
Their 10th- and 11th-grade years were unlike anything anyone had encountered, with COVID-19 forcing schools to go virtual in a county where internet connectivity is spotty for many and often simply unavailable.
“We were living a lot of life virtually,” Parham recalled.
Salutatorian Sarah Gibby, during her remarks, reminded her classmates that their freshman year was the only “normal” year they experienced until their senior year.
The Class of 2022 missed out on two years of high school sports, Field Day, one prom and one winter formal during their sophomore and junior years.
“Senior year has finally come and went by just as fast,” Gibby said. “Senior year has truly been a blast. Congratulations, Class of ’22 — we have climbed our Everest.”
Valedictorian Cody Cline described graduation day as “a day so sweet and yet so sad.”
He advised his classmates not to be discouraged from failures, but instead find inspiration from Jesus Christ and “grow from failure and live a life serving others.”
“We must learn from our failures in order to grow,” Cline concluded.