On May 27th at 11:10 a.m., the Class of 2016 walked into their final assembly at Classical Academy High School.

The Senior Assembly started off with a speech by senior Kyle Best to the juniors about why they should all attend Junior Unity day, an event he described as having a significant impact on his high school experience. Fellow senior Cheyenne Benton echoed Kyle’s opinion, stating that Junior Unity Day helped her “go into senior year with a fresh outlook, [which] was really positive.”

In addition to speeches from representatives of dance, musical theater and athletics, there were also various awards that were given to some of the many impactful seniors of the 2016 class. The honor of valedictorian fell to Adam Barker and the distinction of salutatorians—a tie this year—to Michelle Carter and Michelle Wong. Also recognized  were the Scholar Athletes (Faith Pigeon and David Breda), the Athletes of the Year (Amy Varvel and Adam Soberon), the Community Service Award recipients (Bailey Brennen and Bryce Kirklen), Student Leadership Award winners (Hedgie Lim and Max Burns), the Inspirational Student Award winners  (Faith Pigeon and Evan Santos) and, finally, the Caimans of the Year (Tessa Ohre and Brenden Lindsley). Senior Megan Levi has said that her favorite part the assembly was “seeing all of the achievements that […] students [she] hadn’t known for very long had accomplished in the last four years.”

Following the presentation of the awards, a video from Mrs. Shields to the class of 2016 was shown. In the video, Mrs. Shields advised the senior class to look back on all that they have done during their high school career, and reminded them  to take the lessons they have learned during this time with them into their futures. Shields also quoted “Parks and Recreation” character Leslie Knope, saying that “[breaking the rules is] not cool. It’s trespassing, and that is breaking the rules. Cool people make the rules. They don’t break the rules. And if those kids want you to break the rules, then they’re not really your friends.” This heartfelt tribute touched many of the students in the audience; senior Dylan Knapp said that the video gave him “an overwhelming sense of happy and sad nostalgia” and described it as “very bittersweet.”

Knapp was not the only student who felt sentimental, however. Junior Keith Lugo also felt saddened by the impending departure of the seniors and stated that he would rather that they “just stay here, because I’m going to miss [them].”

At the very end of the assembly, seniors Noah Farmer and Megan Levi performed a rendition of the “Goodbye Song” from the show “Bear and the Big Blue House.” When asked what advice she would leave for the remaining underclassmen, Levi answered, “Take twenty seconds of insane courage to be uncommonly kind to someone, and it will change your life and theirs.”

After the performance ended, Caiman Hall slowly emptied out as the senior class left a CAHS assembly for the final time.  And so, to the graduating class of 2016, congratulations and best wishes on all of your future endeavors.