Inside: B2, ParkdaleB3, Happenings I news I B6, Classifieds I B14, Scholarships, Evening

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

B1

Clas Class of

20

Story and photos by ADAM LAPIERRE

The journey i the reward

Life lessons heavy at Hood River Valley High School graduation
The journey is the reward. The journey, not the destination, is the prize of life; and as difficult as that journey can sometimes be, it is all that we have in our tiny speck of time and place. So much of what we have achieved and gained over the last four years goes unsaid and tonight is not the reward; the reward is everything weve accomplished along the way. The journey is the reward, Emily Keith said to a solemn crowd of peers, parents, family and friends. The Hood River Valley High School graduate continued. Can one night really quantify all that we have achieved in the last four years? The real lessons we learned were not in the classroom, but in the halls, on the stage and on the fields. With the news of fallen classmate Forest Andrews weighing like lead on their hearts and minds, the class of 2011 learned one final lesson before turning their tassels and tossing their caps into the air Friday evening: Tragedy strikes indiscriminately. Before taking to the stage, soonto-be HRVHS graduates ceremoniously partake in the tradition of

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
KAREN NEITZEL, QUOTING ANNE FRANK

giving hugs and high-fives, straightening caps and corsages, signing yearbooks, posing for photographs and saying the first

round of last goodbyes to teachers and friends. For three hours on a Friday night, graduation is the final fleeting occasion for a class, intricately entwined, to be together for the very last time. Niko Yasui, HRVHS activities director, addressed the students in an impromptu meeting before they made their way to the ceremony. This is your night, he said. Despite this tragedy, there is still a reason to celebrate. All of you, including Forest, have accomplished an amazing amount in the last four years. Lets celebrate

what we have and what you have accomplished. Thats the reason we are all here together tonight. On a windy, bittersweet evening of celebration weighed by genuine tragedy, the ceremony began with Principal Karen Neitzel asking for a moment of silence for Andrews, who had passed away just a few hours earlier. Neitzel then drew from the words of Anne Frank to summarize the class of 2011, and their potential for the future. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment to start to improve the world.

GRADUATES gathered Friday evening for a bittersweet ceremony that honored fallen classmate Forest Andrews and celebrated the accomplishments of 286 students in the class of 2011. See www.hoodrivernews.com for a slideshow of more graduation photos by Adam Lapierre.