Thank you, BHS class of 2017.

Thanks for speaking out and for standing up. For dissenting and for agreeing. For holding each other up and watching out for one another.

Whether we like it our not, our four years here were jammed packed with politics, at the local, state, and national level. On all of the issues that arose, we were able to form our own opinions- opinions which did not always align, and often led to disagreements.

But that’s not a bad thing at all. We learned how to be deeply loyal to the opinions, how to argue their point, and most importantly, how to show up to school the next day and sit next to the person we disagreed with on Facebook. As the class of 2017 enters adulthood, these skills will be invaluable.

However, let’s not fixate on the disagreements. During our time at BHS, we faced many challenges, which we could not have overcome successfully if we were not unified.

The bus workers went on strike and the teachers almost walked. We faced two budget crises, two administrative shake ups, and the loss of many of our favorite teachers. In spite of all this, we continued.  

It was during these crises when our wildly different opinions began to converge. As a class, we learned what it means to stand together, to stand for something greater than ourselves or our individual opinions.

We marched with the bus workers. We showed up to school board meetings and roared from the balcony. We protested when the school board put our school up “for sale” and demanded our superintendent be held accountable. As a class, we discovered the power of numbers to effect the world around us.

We disagreed a lot. But lets remember the lessons we learned along the way, the people that helped us get there, and what we accomplished together. Lets use what we learned at BHS, inside the classroom or out, in our future endeavors, whatever they may be.

Thank you teachers, parents, administrators, and community member for helping us along the way.

And thank you, BHS class of 2017.