“You, the class of 2025, hold a special place in my heart, and in my career,” Sara Smith, the principal of East Hampton High School, told the graduating seniors as they sat together under a large white tent on the school’s lawn for their commencement ceremony last Friday evening. “You entered ninth grade as I entered as principal, and in many ways we grew into our current positions together.”
“The last two weeks have been difficult, to say the least, for us as a school community,” Ms. Smith acknowledged — the ceremony had begun with a moment of silence to honor Scarleth Urgiles Samaniego, the East Hampton High School junior who had been killed in a car accident the night before the last day of classes. Still, she went on, “I have learned firsthand that if you give to a community, and show up for others, they will show up for you.”
She pointed out that the group had finished middle school in a year “marked by virtual learning, quarantine, isolation, and, quite frankly, slipping into a bit of loneliness,” and recognized that they had turned that around and entered the ninth grade vowing “to get involved in everything the high school community had to offer — to dive in and be a part of it.”
That lesson became a through-line connecting the comments of each student speaker who went on to address the class that evening. Brandon Bistrian and Lila Ruddy, the co-presidents of the class, spent their time on stage highlighting some of the shared memories that had shaped them as a class over the four years they had spent together.
“Although the idea of moving on from East Hampton may be intimidating, it’s important to reflect on where we were four years ago,” Brandon said, and Lila added that each student sitting in the tent had “accomplished something extraordinary,” and that she was “so proud” to have gotten to spend these years alongside them.
The senior choir then performed a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” (a surprise mash-up with Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere”) before Ava Tintle, the class salutatorian, took the stage. “As I look back at the time I spent here at East Hampton High School, I realize how fast the journey went,” she began. “While I look back and remember countless happy memories in the classrooms and on the fields, I feel as though I never truly spent enough time enjoying the moment.”
“Sometimes our goals can narrow our vision so much that we forget to stop and find gratitude for the little things in the moment,” she went on, and encouraged her classmates, going forward, to always take time to “savor the moment.”
The class valedictorian, Abraham Stillman, who took the stage next, echoed Ava’s advice. “Time is well spent when we take the opportunity to notice and enjoy the basic pleasures of life, such as watching the colors of each sunset, breathing our salty ocean air deeply, feeling warmth in a genuine smile, and really taking time to appreciate the beauty in nature and in the people around us,” he said, and advised his fellow graduates to seek out what “excites and fascinates” them, and to “use that passion” to guide their futures.
Next came the presentation of the diplomas, and as the students shook hands with Ms. Smith after crossing the stage they each handed her a nonperishable can of food they had been carrying with them throughout the ceremony — to ensure that the school’s food pantry would be well stocked throughout the summer, Ms. Smith later clarified, in case any audience members had been wondering “why they were handing me beans.”
The last speaker of the evening was Viviana Guerrero-Torres, the president of the Student Association, who provided the “stats” of the class. Of the 231 students in the graduating class, she announced, 130 will be enrolling in four-year colleges, 36 will be enrolling in two-year colleges, three will be continuing their technical educations through the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), and 10 will be entering the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Marines.
“As you step into the next chapter, whether it’s college, the work force, the military, or something uniquely your own, take [this] lesson with you,” Ms. Smith advised the graduates. “The world doesn’t need perfection — it needs people who show up, who notice, and who care. You are those people.”
