Cheshire High School Seniors Become Alumni

A cool breeze blew across the Cheshire High School football field Friday evening as 367 seniors marched across the field to accept their diplomas as hundreds of family and friends cheered them on.

The school's 59th graduation ceremony was not without its lighter moments — such as when a man dressed only in boxer shorts and wearing a shirt over his head to hide his face — streaked by while Board of Education chairman Gerald Brittingham addressed the students.

But while the students were festive, they also heard from several speakers how they should embrace the start of the rest of their lives.

"Every successive generation of Americans has outperformed the previous generation and that is one hell of a burden for you — that's tough to live up to it," Brittingham told the students. "You have been given the tools this town has provided you with, the tools to accomplish this, and how you chose to use them is entirely up to you.

"Will you go through life excelling in mediocrity? Will you go to college and party away or make something of yourselves? That is up to you," he said. 

Valedictorian Lindsey Bonitz told the crowd how much she had learned through the college application process, especially completing her application to Princeton University. Though not successful, the process provided insights into herself and her future, she said.

"Here we are today -- we may have tripped, we may have fallen, we may have taken the wrong turn and gotten lost, but we are here today because we found the right direction," she said. "From here we face new challenger, new obstacles, new fears and we will make new kinds of mistakes, but as we fall, we will learn new views of the world and we will learn how to get back up.

"We must embrace our ability to fall with style," she said.

Salutatorian Aneri Chetna Pattani said the lessons she learned went beyond the academics.
 
"Lesson number one — use your locker," she said. "We all remember how we walked around freshman year with our backpacks filled. We learned to use our lockers effectively and we all learned how much we could handle and how much weight to take on and how much to leave in locker.

"That's a skill you need in life — to take on as much as can without giving your self a backache," she said.