WACO graduates told to nurture their roots

By Brooks Taylor, Mt. Pleasant News

WAYLAND ? With a simple flip of the tassel Sunday, 34 WACO seniors joined the ranks of school alumni.

Graduating under the motto ? ?What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are small matters compared to what lies in us.? ? WACO became the first school in the county to award diplomas.

Jeff Dicks, WACO superintendent told the seniors that this is the first day of many milestones in your life. ?We want this to be the best it can be for our graduates.?

Dicks also urged the graduates not to forget that it is not only graduation but also Mother?s Day. ?If you have not gotten your mother a card, you might want to make a detour on the way home. Don?t ever forget your mother on Mother?s Day. You have now crossed that line of responsibility.?

Each year the senior class chooses a faculty member to keynote the occasion. Retiring teacher Linda Wilkerson received the honor this year. Wilkerson began her teaching career in WACO in 1973 and has spent over 40 years in education, 34 of which were at WACO.

Wilkerson?s address was on roots ? putting down roots, pruning those roots, pulling the roots and eradicating them. ?Never forget your past, it is your best teacher,? she advised.

She asked the class to ponder their deepest roots and said the class values hard work, kindness, honesty and courage among many other sound values. ?You are a group of students with many deep values and beliefs.?

During her life, she said she has sometimes put too much of a value on her roots that other things close to her suffered.

Urging the class to eradicate the roots of bitterness, she says if those roots are not eliminated, ?they will destroy you.?

Dark times, she said, can provide valuable lessons. ?Our darkest time can test what we value most in life.?

Wilkerson reflected that she had many members of the Class of 2017 in class at one time or another and came away impressed. ?I know you have established many deep roots in your life. There are so many great leaders in your class. Your class is ready to raise the bar.?

Three seniors also addressed their classmates.

Kasey Sutton noted the class has learned so much together. ?We have learned about each other but more importantly learned about ourselves. We have struggled at some point, but we learned about ourselves and our limits.?

Roman Kiefer noted the class is composed of survivors, having survived a pair of bomb threats and lockdowns.

?We became united as a class. There are seniors feeling the same way as you. This fall you will build new relationships. But before you do, tell your parents you love them and give your best friend a hug.?

Halle Kissell told classmates that they must adopt a ?can do? attitude. ?You have to look at the task and say I can do this rather than why do I have to do this. You need a ?get to? instead of a ?have to? attitude.

?The minutes we fail are the minutes we grow,? Kissell continued. ?The only way we fail is by not turning failure into opportunities. ?From every shortcoming, we can learn something and move forward.?

WACO also recognized its honor graduates. Compiling a grade-point average of 4.0 or above were Kiefer, Kissell, Deion Malloy, Katie Malloy, Chimaera Randall, Jackson Roth, Michaela Shaffer, Sutton and Emily Thompson.

Graduating with a GPA of 3.5 through 4.0 were Gabriel Black, Alexis Fisher and Kayla Leichty.

Wilkerson ended her address with a challenge to the Class of 2017. ?Now it is up to you. What are you going to do??