Do you know what has been said about us, the Blue Valley West class of 2022?

“You are the right age, the right class, the right generation to make a difference.”
And if you know our Mr. Baxter, you know it’s sincere.

We are the class that endured the longest years of the pandemic and witnessed global confusion. We watched the world and our community become unfamiliar to us.

And, we are here.

The ages that feel erased from the timeline of our lives, those two years, are still with us today. The sun has risen from the gloomy storm of what we have experienced, and we made it–and even though we were isolated from one another and the world that sometimes seemed it would never end, we were in it together. And now, as we move forward in all different directions, I encourage us to remember that we stuck it out; we continued hour-by-hour, sometimes even minute-by-minute, to cross this finish line together.

Today, I bring good news; we weathered the storm.

The great Paulo Coelho wrote, “There is only one way to learn, it’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey,”

We learned things about ourselves that we would not have learned any other way. We learned that we can do things that seem impossible. We learned that creativity can solve problems and that improvising can be a solution to unexpected and unimaginable circumstances. We also learned to mourn together. We mourned for the more than a million lives lost–and from this, we are forever changed. Most of all, though, we learned to thrive. We learned to be flexible and adapt to new ways of living our daily lives. We learned to connect with each other even with half of our faces hidden, and we also learned how much we missed seeing one another smile.

Today I want us to remember to let our ambitions continue to ignite our souls and that it’s okay to fall down and even get hurt. Just keep running with the burning embers inside your heart. We can use that ignition to lead; We are the generation next in line, and we’re here for it. The hope that we are seeing today is the fuel we need to get started, to change ourselves and our community for the better.

We thank our parents, our families, and friends, and send deep gratitude to our teachers, valued support staff, and our administrators–On behalf of the class of 2022, I want to say thank you. Thank you so much for sticking with us and showing us what it takes to manage the unmanageable, rise beyond fear, and no matter how hard it was, you kept showing up for us even when we did not want to show up for ourselves. Thank you for staying with us and for helping us find our way through. Your investment in us is our duty to return to the world. Without your enduring guidance, patience, and presence, none of this would have been possible.

Congratulations, Class of 2022. Let’s make it all mean something more with every step forward.