Vanguard Class of ‘21 graduates

The Wisconsin Heights Class of 2021 graduated last Sunday under blue skies outdoors on the football field. For the first time in over a year the bright smiles of students were visible at school. The class of ‘21 endured a year masked and at times out of school, but their joy was evident.   Kylan Bartel   Valedictorian   Hello folks! I’m Kylan Bartel (pronouns he/him/his or they/them/theirs), and I am honored to be speaking today as the Valedictorian of the Wisconsin Heights Class of 2021. I’m going to be honest. I wrote this very sentence at 10:27 PM, nine hours and 33 minutes before this speech was due. Now, I am not a habitual procrastinator. I don’t think I’d be standing here as Valedictorian if that were the case. So why did I put off this speech until the last possible moment, you ask? The answer is simple: I had no idea what to say. Getting across a profound, inspirational idea in 2-4 minutes is a tall order, especially since all of my brain cells are fried to the point of oblivion from the four years-long effort to become Valedictorian in the first place. Uh oh . . . I feel like ya’ll are preparing yourselves for a “But, at the last minute I came up with the perfect idea!” moment. I hate to break it to you all, but that moment never came. What makes this speech even more difficult to write is that, though I’ve known many of my classmates since kindergarten, I can’t help feeling as though I’m talking to 57 strangers. This past year has forced us to grow up fast. I personally am far from the person I was on March 13th, 2020, the last day of pre-COVID school, for better or for worse (or more likely, for both). So in that sense, I am a stranger to many of you here, given that I was only enrolled in one class at Heights this year. And, judging by the few classmates that I have interacted with in the past year, I’m not the only one who has undergone a major personality shift. It almost feels like we’ve already gone our separate ways. Some folks have entered the workforce, others have been getting involved with civic engagement efforts, and still others have been going through the motions with Zoom school while counting down the days until this very day. To me, it seems like the only real thing that we have in common at this point is that we are Vanguards. I apologize for how cheesy that sounds. But as far as school mascots go, the Vanguard is a pretty cool one. Now, many people claim that we are named after the failed Vanguard rocket that exploded in 1957. I’m just gonna go ahead and say that we should probably not use that version of the Vanguard as our role model. Luckily, the word Vanguard has some other, less disastrous, meanings. Of course, our current logo and mascot are based on the more common usage of the word: The Vanguard refers to “the troops moving at the head of an army” (thanks Merriam Webster). Perhaps more relevantly for us, Cambridge Dictionary calls the Vanguard “a group of people who lead the development of new ideas.” In a similar vein, Merriam Webster claims that the Vanguard is “the forefront of an action or movement.” Now that’s more like it! Let’s all do our best to bring that Vanguard spirit with us out into the real world. Because let’s be honest: the “real world” needs some serious work. It’s like that one house on House Hunters that they call the “fixer-upper.” The work of making the world a better place can be overwhelming. I’d encourage everyone here to focus on the type of work that they’re most passionate about. For me, I feel most called to take down systems of oppression and work towards Black and Queer liberation. Maybe you folks out there feel called to work for environmental justice, or helping those in poverty, or something else entirely. Once you find a path that calls to you, get on it! Peacefully protest, VOTE, partake in civil discourse or civil disobedience, volunteer, educate yourself about issues you care about. That last one is important. I hope we can all strive to be life-long learners with the intention to convert that learning into tangible action. For a true Vanguard, life is too short to sit back and hope that someone else will go out and fix everything. We need to go out and work for the changes that we want to see in the world.   I want to conclude by thanking the Vanguard teachers, custodial staff, aides, administration, and other staff members. You all have made such an impact on our lives and this community in general. To the Class of ‘21, let’s thank each other for making the best out of these last four years, even in the middle of a global pandemic and widespread social unrest. On a personal note, thank you to the music department and the drama club family for giving me a reason to look forward to going to school everyday. Thank you to the local activists and organizations that have inspired me to take up the good fight. Thanks to my friends for believing in me more than I believe in myself. Thanks to my family for helping me draft up this speech at the very last minute, and for raising me and all that. Lastly, thank you all for coming together to celebrate the Class of ‘21! As a final farewell, let’s all make the Vanguard salute together one last time. Remember, don’t let the V tip, or the spirit will fall out.   Kourtney Mercer Salutatorian   Hello everybody, I’m Kourtney Mercer (she/her), salutatorian of the class of 2021, and I’m here to congratulate you all for making it through this year! Unexpected. That is the word I would use to characterize the last year we have all gone through. With so many highs and lows, it is a miracle we have all made it here today for such an important milestone in our young lives. COVID-19 unexpectedly flipped the whole world upside down leaving us at home, not knowing what the future may hold for us. This was a disruption that halted our junior year: meaning no junior prom, no California trip, and no spring sports. Milestones that we were all looking forward to were suddenly ended by something that none of us could control. We spent so many months away from friends and family, staying at home, and adjusting to an online education. Learning how to use zoom in our classes was just one of the many struggles we all had to overcome while transitioning to the online world. It was hard for us to not see the teachers in person; teachers are who helped shape us into the people we are today. They have taught us such valuable lessons throughout our years at Heights, and were a great support system during our new way of learning. We spent countless hours behind a computer screen instead of getting the normal high school experience we deserved. But somehow through all of this misfortune, we made it through the tough times.   In person learning resumed earlier this spring, fall and winter sports were able to resume along with spring sports starting after that, and not to mention prom being able to occur and graduation, the reason we are here today. As a class, we have faced such unexpected adversity, because of the COVID-19 virus, that left us as stronger individuals. The lessons we have learned during this quarantine can be applied to the rest of our lives. The future may be unknown for us, but now we have the skills to deal with the unexpected and adapt to it. There is no doubt in my mind that the class of 2021 will have the ability to face the world head on and find the bright future for which we all search.