Graduates recall past, look ahead
BUTLER TWP — Whether it's hearing the sound of the horn at the starting line of a cross country race, spending countless hours learning music at band camp, or running through the tunnel onto the soccer field before each game, Butler High School graduates have a myriad of memories that are bound to stay with them.
More than 600 seniors turned their tassels at Butler High School's 124th annual commencement Tuesday evening, which took place at the high school gymnasium.
For many of those students, the small triumphs, the everyday actions during extracurricular activities, will be reminisced about for years to come.
“Something I'm going to miss is running down the tunnel for soccer,” said Wesley Eckstein, who will attend the University of Pittsburgh to study mechanical engineering. “It's something I'll always miss.”
He said that each soccer player ran to the field through a tunnel after their names were called before each game.
Matt Rudzki said he'll miss going to trivia nights at Applebee's with his friends.
“And game day for volleyball, eating at China Gourmet,” he said. “We went before almost every game.”
Rudzki will attend Penn State University. While he's undecided on his studies, he's considering an actuarial science major.
Of course, before, during and after the ceremony, new graduates huddled around friends, family and faculty members to take photographs during the milestone event. Even William Beichner, class president, had a photograph he needed to take before addressing his classmates and the audience.
“Let me take a selfie,” he said at the lectern before flipping his phone to himself and taking a picture with 610 fellow students wearing white and gold caps and gowns in the background.
“Tonight is the start of something new … But we will always be the Class of 2014,” he emphasized during his speech.
While photographs are reminders of memories and the past, many students will have marching band and other activities they did with friends forever etched in their minds.
Aidan Semanco, who will attend George Mason University to study government and international politics, will remember the chants he yelled, the music played, and of course, the halftime shows he performed in the marching band during Friday night football games.
Band also holds fond memories for Taylor Holt, Savanah Craig and Elizabeth Haughey, who became friends during their freshman year in band camp. They've remained close ever since.
“We've been friends four years strong,” Haughey said.
The group will be going separate ways with Holt attending Indiana (Pa.) University to study nursing, Craig going to Baldwin Wallace University to study medical laboratory science and pre-dental, and Haughey going to the Clarion University, Venango College, to study nursing. They hope to stay in touch.
“It's not real yet,” Craig said of graduation day.
“It won't hit until homeroom, when they hand us the diplomas,” Haughey said.
But while their high school careers and new memories are coming to a close, others were creating new memories for their graduating friends in the parking lot.
Carrie Roxbury, a Slippery Rock High School student, was busy pushing sticky notes to the hub caps, attaching glow sticks to the back of the car, and tying streamers to the back of her friend's green Ford Mustang. Her unsuspecting friend, Sarah Shick, was still inside the high school as her church friends finished decorating.
“It's going to be a surprise,” Roxbury said, with friends Ashleigh Muncy, of West Virginia, and Alyssa Collins, a Mars High School graduate, assisting her.
Another parked car, a maroon-colored Jeep was covered in multicolored sticky notes. They were pressed across the windshield and on all over the side windows. “Love you” was written on a note stuck on one of the headlights.
