Gloucester High class of 2021 looks to “the landscape of the future”

Charlie Groleau

Class officers lead their classmates to the commencement ceremony

It was a beautiful, maskless, sunny day  as the GHS class of 2021 stepped onto the field for their commencement ceremony on Sunday.  

2021 has been a year like no other, full of schedule changes, mask mandates, social distancing and hybrid learning.  This year’s graduation celebrated the resilience, perseverance and accomplishments of the senior class in the midst of a global pandemic, and reflected on the supportive community of Gloucester.

“When school shut down in March of 2020, we learned our most valuable lesson yet,” Salutatorian Owen Hardy said. “We came to see how much we truly value and rely on each other’s friendship and company.”

Even during the pandemic, the class of 2021 came together to stand for what they believe in.  This class was part of a school wide walk-out for gun control, organized protests and rallies for the Black Lives Matter movement, and have been allies and advocates for the LGBTQIA community.   Whether for their classmates, or for strangers, this class is best known for their support of others. 

“You’ve shown me that success is not a personal metric,” Valedictorian Mila Barry said. “We make each other strong; we make each other into the people we want to see in this world; we make each other into the people we want to be in this world.” 

“We’re here to arm each other with empathy, and then get out into the world and do something with it,” Barry said. 

 

Guest speakers, Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, Superintendent Ben Lummis, School Committee member Johnathon Pope and Principal James Cook all praised the hard work, activism and perseverance of this class through turbulent times. 

“Members of the Class of 2021 are steeped in tumult,” Cook said. “You’ve experienced the turbulence of changes to your schedules and routines. You’ve experienced the turbulence of health checks and testing, quarantining and isolation, the hardship and loss of loved ones.  You’ve experienced the turbulence of helping to reshape rites of passage and traditions at GHS to meet the challenge of our times.” Cook said.  “We have passed from that to this, then to now, there to here, where we are gathered to celebrate the extraordinary individual and collective journeys of these graduates.”

After class Treasurer Dylan Orlando, presented the class gift and diplomas were awarded, Class President Kelsey Lowthers set a challenge for the graduates.  “Believe in yourself, and others around you,” she said. “ Challenge yourself to hope, dream and believe knowing that our voices can change the world.” 

And with a toss of the caps, the class of 2021 Commencement concluded. 

“When I see the landscape of the future, I see you all in it,” Barry said. “And nothing makes me happier, makes me more hopeful, than that vision.”