Glastonbury High School Class of 2013 Graduates!

The graduating seniors of the Glastonbury High School Class of 2013 was encouraged to not wait for their dreams, to grow and change and seize the futures they awaited their diplomas Friday night.

“The graduates are holding their breath as they wait for their diplomas tonight,” Class President Paige Cantwell told the hundreds of friends and family members that packed the athletic fields for the graduation ceremony.  “But why wait for your diploma?  Why go to work waiting for 5 o’clock?  Why go through life waiting for anything?”

Watch Patch’s video of Paige’s speech to the graduates above.

“Let us not hold our breath any longer,” she said, encouraging her fellow graduates to live in the moment and not to fear taking risks.

The ceremony, which took place on the first day of summer, saw hundreds of attendees sitting in folding chairs and spread out on blankets watching the happy graduates as Board of Education Chair Susan Karp, Superintendent Alan Bookman and Principal Dr. Nancy Bean all addressed crowd.  Bookman and Bean gave special recognition to those groups and individuals that made the graduates’ GHS experiences so special, while Karp shared her admiration for the Class of 2013.

“You have awed, amazed and inspired us,” Karp told the graduates, telling their assembled family members that she shared their pride in the students.

Keeping with GHS’s tradition of not picking a valedictorian or salutatorian, the principal recognized the accomplishments of the three top-ranked students of the Class of 2013: Emily Parulolo, Kaitavjeet Chowdhary and Nicholas Nordlund.

Class speaker Emily Cole told the class that she expected many thought that she would be the last person to speak nostalgically about her school life in Glastonbury.  But reflection showed her the ties that help to bind someone to their home, no matter where they go.

“It is so easy to romanticize leaving until the time comes,” Cole said.

“Wherever we go, we will be forced to shed the skins of our former selves,” she told her fellow graduates, “but there are now infinite possibilities at our fingertips, and I want us to explore them.”

“There is not just one American dream,” Cole said, “but many.”