HUGHESVILLE - After 13 years of lessons, Hughesville High School speakers reflected upon the lessons that most stuck out to them during the district's 119th graduation.
"We learned to make good decisions -- most of the time," Dana Shearer, class president, said during the Friday night graduation, held in the football stadium.
They learned about the importance of friendship as they changed classes and met new people, while still maintaining their previous relationships.
"We are surrounded by some of the best people we will ever meet," Shearer said.
In addition to learning how to be good people, they also learned how to be good friends.
"We will stay friends with those that matter most," she said. "Good luck in all of your endeavors. Stay in touch and may the odds be ever in your favor."
Salutatorian Alicia Zook also spoke about the lessons she learned while attending East Lycoming School District.
If school were only about academia, the students would have been able to sleep in late and read their schoolbooks at home.
Instead, they were given a collection of life lessons which can only be taught, she said.
By breaking difficult problems into smaller, more manageable tasks, "we can overcome seemingly impossible challenges," Zook said.
They also learned if they are respectful and work hard that others will work with them.
It is fine not to know, but it is important to find the answer, she said.
Zook told her fellow graduates to embrace both leadership potential and knowledge.
"We finally made it," Tyler Smith, valedictorian, said.
After so many lasts, such as last day and last school lunch, the graduates celebrated their last last -- their last few moments as Hughesville High School students.
In front of them are firsts, but also questions. Some questions that Smith asked were serious, whether their friends would keep in touch with each other, and others were more humorous, whether the "sparkly vampire and werewolf obsession will ever go away," referencing the Twilight book series.
Life will be unpredictable for the graduates, as it already has been in the past, especially with last September's flooding, he said.
It seemed like an ordinary day when the students received the early dismissal, which was "no big deal" and just a precaution, Smith said he originally thought.
He and others realized how serious the flooding was when friends were trapped at other people's houses and their parents could not get home.
"There were ponds where yards were," Smith said. "The most amazing thing I saw was not the damage, but the clean up after."
The main bulk of people he saw helping were his fellow seniors.
"Although you may be hit by a flood, there will always be someone there to pick you up," Smith said.
Superintendent Michael Pawlik said that after the flood, the seniors were not asking "Haven't we done enough?", but instead, they were asking "What more can we do?"
The seniors organized a drive to help people get supplies they needed and reached out to others.
The class of 2012 will always be remembered for their deeds, Pawlik said.
