LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — There were far more smiles than tears at Sullivan West Central School District’s June 27 high school graduation. At 10:30 a.m. sharp, beaming graduates filed into the high school gymnasium to the sounds of the senior band playing Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance,” and the unrestrained cheers of proud parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. One excited mother told everyone within earshot that she’d waited 20 years for this day and that nothing, not even the threatening sky, could put a damper on it.

Administrators kept obligatory remarks brief, upbeat and to the point. Sullivan West District Superintendent Dr. Nancy Hackett, first to speak, said, “Graduation is a time when everyone is giving you advice. My advice to you is to be safe, have fun and do come back to visit. Congratulations on your graduation.”

Assistant principal Scott Haberli told the graduates, “It’s hard today not to compare yourself to others.” But he advised the class to try to do it anyway, telling them, “Play to your strengths. If you enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll work hard and do your best. Be yourself, because everyone else is already taken.”

Salutatorian and keynote speaker Kevin Hart said, “The class of 2015 is best defined by its strong work ethic.” Citing a fledging freshman football squad that matured into a top-flight team and fearless band members who tackled Frank Ticheli’s daunting “An American Elegy” score at this year’s spring concert, Hart said it was a class that never shrank from a challenge that demanded hard work and focus. He also thanked the school’s administrators, faculty, staff and janitors, as he said, “I felt that everyone was looking out for me from my first day here.”

Taking part one last time with the senior choir and band, the graduates sang Roger Emerson’s arrangement of “Friends” by Michael Smith and played Johnnie Vinson’s arrangement of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera Medley.”

Then it was the business of the day: row by row, four rows of seniors came forward and received their diplomas from school board president Mary K. Scheutzow, as principal Margaret Tenbus read a list of awards and scholarships each had received. With diploma in hand, each graduate had a picture taken, was congratulated by Hackett and returned to a seat.

After the last diploma was awarded, class president Daphne Muzuruk presented the class gift in honor of retiring principal Tenbus, thanking her for incomparable leadership over the years, a sentiment echoed by all with a standing ovation.

Caps were tossed into the air. The band played “Pomp and Circumstance” again, this time as the recessional march. And Sullivan West’s Class of 2015 officially began adult life.