Kyle Troutman
Grab your family, friends, and a box of tissues – graduation season is upon us!
Five local schools will send out about 300 new adults between Thursday and May 17th, preparing them for more than a decade of mentoring many of them into college, technical school or the world of the job market. send out.
I’m looking forward to participating in each event and seeing many of the seniors I’ve covered in recent years walk across the stage and make a fresh start. From smiling as they enter to Sir Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Pomp” to tears during Vitamin C’s “Friends Forever” during the slideshow, graduation ceremonies bring a lot of joy to students and their families. It is a day that brings emotions and for many will never be forgotten.
I’ve walked the stage twice myself, but my experience is quite unique compared to my seniors at Cassville, Southwest, Exeter, Wheaton and Purdy.
First, three of these schools hold their graduation ceremonies in their gymnasiums, another in their multipurpose room, and a fifth on their high school football field. As a side note, I love Cassville’s insistence on outdoor graduation ceremonies. Weather permitting, it will be a beautiful ceremony unique to the largest district we cover.
At my alma mater, Little Rock Central High School, the 2006 graduation ceremony may have been held at the football stadium, but I have no idea how the administration procured the more than 600 chairs for the field. not.
My graduation ceremony was held at what is now called Simmons Bank Arena (Verizon Arena when I graduated, Alltel Arena before that). The 18,000-seat venue (about 6,000 of which were locked down) is where I watched many Arkansas River Blades minor league hockey games, and where Aaron Carter (don’t judge me) played. It’s the same place where I’ve gone to see concerts like My Unrequited Love (because it came in 8th place) many times. Grade really liked him), and more recently, Green Day (The Greatest Concert of All Time).
In any case, the graduation ceremony lasted four hours, half of which was just the seniors’ names being called. With a name like “Troutman,” I was, of course, at the back of the alphabetical row, not near my friends. I knew a few people within earshot, but my class was so large that I never met my classmates on either side of me until graduation day.
The second time I crossed the stage was inside the 5,600-seat Jack Stevens Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. After five years of post-secondary education, I was ready to leave school, so I might have started celebrating early and arrived just in time to get in line.
I don’t remember how many people I graduated with at that time, but the gymnasium floor was almost full. Then again, I wasn’t sitting in the seat of anyone I’d ever met.
However, I made friends that day. Sitting next to me was a nervous and excited female graduate named Dina. She said that although we may not have known each other before, we will always remember graduating college together.
I haven’t seen Dina since then, but we became friends on social media and we’re still good friends. She has a beautiful blended family: her husband and her two adopted children. Every time she posts, I am happily reminded of her graduating from UALR and am happy to see her enjoying her life as much as she did that day.
Graduation was fun, but if I had to go back, I think Barry County would have been better.
Every graduation ceremony is special, but because we’ve covered them here for so long, there’s a level of intimacy and familiarity that doesn’t exist in a class of over 600 people. I could hardly see my friends waving at me, let alone trying to think of ways to do so. Doing special poses or movements on the edge of your seat during a queue.
I couldn’t get hold of the gory video of all my childhood classmates, or even a slideshow of the yearbook staff’s annual photos (many of which were taken by my longtime newspaper reporter and yearbook writer friend Richell). It should). And while it definitely wasn’t possible for all of us to give the principal a rubber ducky, I would love to see her face if we tried.
All of those little things make graduation a little more fun, a little more exciting, a little more special here in small town America.
So, enjoy the next few weeks, seniors. Savor your last moments with friends and surrender to the sometimes loud and embarrassing love that emanates from your family.
You only graduate once, so make the most of it. It’s a day I’ll never forget.
PS I hope I can help you in that regard. Last year, I made it a point to take at least one photo (two is my goal) of every graduating student in her five school districts. I’m taking on that challenge again this year, and these photos will be available to view and purchase online at http://casvilledemocrat.zenfoliosite. com/photo gallery. I can’t wait to capture your memories in photos!
Kyle Troutman has been editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and became publisher in 2023. In 2017 she was named the Daily’s William E. James/Missouri Outstanding Young Journalist, and in 2022 she received the Golden She Dozen Award from ISWINE. Reach us at 417-847-2610 or ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com.
