Brian Hagberg
WARREN, Pa. – They walked onto the turf at War Memorial Field as seniors Friday night but walked off it as the graduated Warren Area High School Class of 2023.
Reading of the graduates:
More than 140 of them. Walking past one milestone and taking the next steps in life’s journey. There were cheers, and tears, of course. Even a couple of blows from an air horn. But in the end, it was a typical celebration of graduates, for a graduating class whose high school experience was anything but typical.
Photos by Brian Hagberg:
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Quite simply, as valedictorian Kaden Kelly-Pojar said, “It’s our ceremony.”
“Everything after this point is an expression of our will,” Kelly-Pojar said. “And there will be struggle, and there will be pain. And there will be pleasure, and there will be joy. But it’s ours, and it’s beautiful.”
See Kelly-Pojar’s full remarks:
Kelly-Pojar encouraged his classmates to take the lessons learned at WAHS and apply them as the graduates take their next steps in life.
“Don’t lose the lessons that only the past can teach, but don’t linger there either,” Kelly-Pojar said. “We’re about to enter the next exciting chapter of our lives, and it’s one that will definitely change in unfamiliar, disorienting ways.
“I ask you all to live with courage and be true to yourselves above all else. I promise I’ll try to do the same. Find inner mastery in a world that takes and expects nothing in return. I expect to see all of you succeed. Not soon, or in a couple of years, but in however long it takes.”
See salutatorian Lauren Andersen’s speech:
Historian Audrey Smith:
