‘Hard to say goodbye..’

Sullivan West O-Sevs first class to spend

full high school tenure in Lake Huntington

By RICHARD A. ROSS

richardross@rivereporter.com

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — They were a class of distinction, unique in their own right.

And with their graduation, Sullivan West’s Class of 2007, known more intimately as the O-Sevs, closed a chapter of their lives both individually and collectively on June 23 as they set forth to begin another.

As the first class to spend their entire four years in the new high school in Lake Huntington, the O-Sevs leave behind their definitive footprint in academics, athletics and the arts. In a ceremony long on resonance, sage advice, smiles and mirth, but gracefully terse in length, the graduates marched, sang and played in their last musical moments, listened attentively to fellow classmates who delivered thoughtful and inspiring speeches, and finally tossed their mortarboards into the air with showers of silly string in their final moments as a class, before exiting to the closing strains of Edward Elgars’s “Pomp and Circumstance.”

Graduations are always defining rites of passage, but are some are dulled by overly long speeches and adherence to ritual for ritual’s sake.

But not this one.

On the contrary, this ceremony overflowed with meaning and feeling but literally flew by with unbridled efficiency, a tribute to a class that in four short years created a legacy that will endure for years to come.

It was the close of what student speaker Ross Bernhardt described as “13 terrific years.” The bright and charismatic class speaker later referred to Alfred Lloyd Tenneyson’s poem “Ulysses,” as he advised his classmates to “follow knowledge like a sinking star.” Like the aging Ulysses who was no longer content to merely rule, Bernhardt urged his attentive classmates to continue to strive for a better understanding. He cited the poem’s rallying relevant call to a group of his peers whose quest has only just begun.

“We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

Prior to his speech, the audience had already absorbed other apropos messages contained in the chorus’s rendition of “Hard to Say Goodbye,” from Dreamgirls. “We’ve been together a long time. We never thought it would end. We were always so close to each other; you were always my friend,” they sang. Superintendent Alan Derry’s words rang true as well. “You will inherit a more complicated, sophisticated and competitive world than any former graduates of Sullivan West, Narrowsburg, Delaware Valley or Jeff-Youngsville ever encountered. And the world is exactly what you make it. You have been a great group in many different respects. You will always be in our hearts,” he said. “You are us and we are you.”

The band’s final selection of “All Glory Told,” was a fitting sendoff for such an outstanding class. Student speaker Jessica Armstrong continued in the thoughtful vein, pondering the idea of commencement as a paradoxical conjoining of an end with a beginning. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose,” Armstrong fittingly quoted Dr. Seuss.

Class president Laura Stabbert completed the sterling trilogy of speakers with good advice to begin her address. “Be concise, be brief and be seated,” she said to the appreciative audience. She encouraged her classmates to make every day count just as the 2,340 school days from kindergarten through grade 12 had mattered to the assembled 116 graduates. (Perhaps they mattered the most to Bryan Schmidt, who never missed a single one from start to finish of his 13 years).

“Life is to be enjoyed,” said Stabbert. High school principal Margaret Tenbus noted that she and the O-Sevs had survived together, but in fact it was far more than mere survival. This group bequeathed a wealth of athletic banners, a legacy of fine entertainment, academic achievements, the Sullivan Cup from the SCIL competitions, a national math contest and many other contributions too numerous to mention. As each graduate was called forth to receive his or her diploma from school board members, Tenbus read off a litany of scholarships and awards that totaled an unprecedented 1.5 million dollars earned by this class from colleges, grants and awards.

Following the distribution of the last diploma, the graduates turned their tassles to the right to signify the completion of their high school days. Mortarboards flew aloft, followed by the errant paths of silly string, the last full measure of mirth deployed by a few of the happiest among them.

Arm in arm, pairs of grads exited the packed gymnasium amid a wholesome blend of tears, smiles, photos being snapped and congratulations being offered.

Exiting the gym with so many young people this writer has come to know so well, more poets’ words, namely those of Simon and Garfunkel suddenly flew into his head,

“Time it was, and what a time it was, it was

A time of innocence, a time of confidences.”

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