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SYCAMORE – Minutes before graduating Sunday, 17-year-old Joseph Lutz sat in a Sycamore High School classroom with a group of friends, knowing it was the last day they would all be in the same room together.
“I’m just thinking about the future right now,” Lutz said. “Just seeing everyone for the last time. It’s kind of a very emotional day for everyone.”
The all-encompassing character of Sycamore High School’s 2016 graduating class can be explained in two words: humble success.
Sycamore School District 427 Superintendent Kathy Countryman addressed the 294-student graduating class Sunday in the high school’s fieldhouse. The teenagers, she pointed out, soon would embark on their lives as college students, soldiers and working members of the community. From a list scribbled on a legal pad in her desk drawer – one she intermittently referred to throughout the school year – Countryman reminisced about the graduating class’ happiest, most celebrated accomplishments.
“Today I took out my legal pad for one last look to make sure I could cover everything,” Countryman said. “But with today’s group, there’s no way I would be able to cover everything.”
Among some of the first words atop her list: quiet, success – then flashes of fond memories summarized in a brief words. Fall play. Powder Puff game, and again, the word success, and again, the word quiet. Winter formal. Feed My Starving Children. Lit Fest. FFA petting zoo. Mission trips. Again, the word quiet. Again, the word success.
“This class is full of humility. The quiet, calm, successful Class of 2016. That is Sycamore. That is you, and I feel very honored to have gotten to know you through all your successes,” Countryman said. “As you leave today, give yourselves a pat on the back, and tell yourself, ‘Great job.’ Say it out loud.”
The outgoing class had two valedictorians: Jennifer Kuo and Angelina Ye. Emma Johnson was the school’s salutatorian.
On Friday, Kuo spoke to her classmates of shelves – shelves built in the minds of Sycamore High School students who have stock piled memories of late-night projects, victorious football games and childhood pleasures that seem distant but fond.
“Someday, this moment – right now – will be on that shelf, too,” she said.
Student speaker Tatyana Curtis took the stage Sunday with a great fear of public speaking and a few words of advice for her fellow graduates.
“What I’m asking from each and every one of you, and myself, is to meet our challenges with our heads held high and our hearts wide open,” Curtis said.
But before shaking the hands of administrators and tossing their caps in a ceremonious goodbye, the 2016 graduating class received one last piece of advice from school board President Jim Dombek.
“I encourage you to chase perfection, knowing full well you will never achieve it, but knowing full well you can achieve excellence,” he said. “Be excellent, Class of 2016.”