Hilldale grads celebrate high school years

May 15—Hilldale High School's Class of 2021 learned plenty over the past four years — and not all of it was in the classroom.

"All that matters is that we made it," Valedictorian Colby Thompson told his classmates during Friday's graduation ceremony. "Now it is time to start a new chapter in our lives. Whether it's going to college, going into the military or straight to the workforce."

Scores of seniors ended their high school career Friday evening striding along the Hornet football field in their caps and gowns. They heard congratulatory cheers and an occasional horn blast from the bleachers.

Thompson took classmates through the past four years, including feeling intimidated during the freshman year and winning spirit awards during the sophomore year. The first half of the junior year went well, he said.

"But when the coronavirus came in March (2020), our junior year was cut short," he said. "We finished our junior year on computers at home. It was just not the same."

Thompson said the COVID-19 pandemic made the start of the senior year doubtful. Scholarship applications and classes added to the stress.

Now it's time for the next chapter, he said.

"Whatever you decide to do in your life, be happy and enjoy it, life is too short to worry and stress," he said. "But also be ready to face adversity in your life because inevitably life will throw you a curve ball from time to time."

Student Council executive secretary Madelyn Rogers said her senior year taught her not to take things for granted.

"There were quarantines of two weeks off of school, so in total I missed a whole month of my senior year," Rogers said. "That doesn't even include the school-wide quarantine after Christmas."

She said missing so much class motivated her to get up in the morning and go to school.

For Hilldale High School Salutatorian Jillian Murray, the past four years taught "the value of being thankful."

"It has definitely been a long road to get here," Murray said Friday night at the Class of 2021 graduation. "We have endured countless tests, worksheets, projects, and so much more."

She recalled the excitement of starting the freshmen year.

"High school is a time when we are free to decide what we want to be," she said. "This was where we found our interests, whether that was sports, band, choir, art. During this phase we were given the opportunity to live the life of an adult without the responsibilities."

However, the COVID-19 pandemic gave the class a "little bit of a wake-up call."

She said the past year taught her "to be thankful for every day, no matter the circumstances because this is a time you will never get back."

Murray said she also learned to get out of her comfort zone, "to do that one thing you're most afraid of."

Senior Watson Schiller said the past year taught him to live through adversity.

"It was definitely a struggle with all the COVID stuff and wearing masks all day at school," he said. "During football season... some weeks, we'd have a full team with all of our seniors and the next day, half our team would be quarantined and we'd have to get all new starters, all new people."

However, he said teachers did a good job helping him and his classmates have a good year.