Graduation ceremonies mark beginnings, ends

Graduation ceremonies for the local Classes of 2023 are now complete. Seniors in Byron, Hayfield, Kasson-Mantorville, and Triton have crossed the stage at their respective schools for the last time and now move on to the future.
By their very nature, high school graduations are both endings and beginnings. Twelve years of schooling are complete and students have moved from children to young adults. And their future stretches before them, to be completed through further education, jobs, military service, and also beginning their own families.
But the ceremonies also this year marked some beginnings and endings for the schools as a whole, not just individuals.
As student speakers at several ceremonies pointed out, the Class of 2023 did not have what many of us would consider the normal high school experience.
Their freshman year was cut short in the spring by the COVID pandemic when in-person school was completely cancelled and everyone scurried around to figure out how to do this thing called distance learning.
Their sophomore year saw a partial return to classes with a combination of in-person and online learning. By their junior year things had taken on a more normal look but were not totally back to normal.
Fortunately the senior year just completed saw a return to normal in-school learning, and the return of all those activities that mark high school from sporting events to class plays to musical performances and more.
Perhaps for this year’s seniors it is best reflected by the class motto of the Triton Class of 2023 — “Advance, adapt, attain.” These students certainly learned the meaning of those three words.
And while for all graduates it marked the end of one phase of their lives for some students, those at the Zumbro Education District Area Learning Center, the entire senior year was also a year of firsts.
As Principal Amy Stites pointed out at last week’s graduation ceremony, everything at ZED was new this year as they moved into a brand new facility after years of ZED programs in several different locations.
So, once again, from the Dodge County Independent congratulations to all in the Class of 2023 as you embark on your future.