From the fifth grade glory years to becoming wiggity-wack

Scurry County beamed with pride Friday night as Snyder, Ira and Hermleigh seniors walked across the stage and received their high school diplomas. The ceremonies marked a milestone in each of the graduates’ lives, paying tribute to their accomplishments in public education and launching them into a new season of life.
To help commemorate the special occasion, the top seniors from each school addressed their fellow graduates, speaking words of encouragement.
Snyder High School valedictorian Ethan Gowin chose to focus on “living” — experiencing life, loving one another and being appreciative.
“You take the world and its people and its possibilities, and you bask in it,” he said. “You do everything you need to do, and then, you do everything you want to do. You challenge your fears, and you don’t regret a thing. You, now and for always, have had the power to choose who you want to be, what you want to do, who you love and who loves you.”
Gowin closed his address by offering advice to his fellow classmates.
“Open up,” he said. “Let life flow through you like sun floods a windowpane because your existence and your story is worth so much more than a valiant act of aggression. So be wiggity-wack and practice some self-love and love each other.”
Snyder salutatorian Malaina Stewart said she spent a lot of time thinking about the message she wanted to convey to her classmates.
“I looked around for inspiration and found a quote that read, ‘The most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity and to not give in to peer pressure to try to be something that you’re not,’” she said. “I thought that this quote was relevant because if there’s anything I learned from my four years in high school, it’s how difficult, yet, how important it is to be yourself.” 
Stewart said that students can often feel like they’re being told who to be in high school, but the graduation ceremony marked the beginning of change for the young men and women.
“We have put in the work, and we have put in the time, and now, we are rewarded with many things,” she said. “All of these things are wonderful, but the most precious, unappreciated gift that we’ve been given is freedom. The freedom to dress any way we want, the freedom to love whoever we choose, the freedom to form our own opinions and the freedoms to do anything we want, whenever we want, just because we want to. We don’t need permission anymore. Our decisions are now our own.”
Addressing the Ira class of 2018 was valedictorian Tori Rosas, who offered advice to those who are younger than her.
“Regardless of where you are in your life, do not compare yourself to anyone else or any other version of where you expected to be,” she said. “As long as you’re persevering and dedicating your time to accomplish your goals, you are doing just fine. Anything you do compared to nothing is everything, so focus on the present, be patient and keep moving forward.”
Rosas also encouraged her fellow classmates to remember their roots.
“I hope that each of you can remember the rare and wonderful blessings we’ve gotten from this school … for the loving and supportive environment, enjoyable extracurricular activities and the excellent education we’ve received,” she said. “I encourage you each to take with you the knowledge of your experiences and share it with others.”
Ira salutatorian Alyssa Goodwin acknowledged the public school journey she experienced alongside her classmates.
“Growing up, it is hard to measure time in high school,” she said. “Most of us count down weeks, days or hours to our senior year. Here we are on stage, and it is suddenly all over. There are no more weeks, days or hours to count down. All that is left is the friendships and memories that we have created. It has been a journey, and I am very proud I got to experience it with each one of you. Congratulations. Wherever we go and whatever we do, may we always remember the time we shared together.”
Moving forward, Goodwin encouraged her classmates to make the world a better place.
“Starting today, try a little harder, make every minute last longer, learn to forgive and forget because we don’t have long to make the most of every moment,” she said. “Reach out to somebody who needs you, make a change, make the world a better place because tomorrow could be one day too late.”
Hermleigh valedictorian Morgan Digby said she did not want to trade the friendships and memories she has made the past 12 years for anything. She recalled fifth grade being her “glory years.”
“Y’all think I laugh a lot now, but it was 10 times worse in fifth grade. Everything was so funny,” she said. 
Digby also talked about her sixth grade year and moving to the new school.
“After being on the top of the totem pole in fifth grade, we were back to the bottom,” she said. “How dare people ignore a sixth grader, do they know who we are?”
Digby said her class was back on top as eighth grader,” but then it was off to high school.
“Freshman year was pretty weird for us because we were the size of junior high kids, but playing sports with 18-year-olds,” she said. “Everyone told us the last four years would go by the fastest and being freshmen, we just thought there was no way. And with the snap of a finger, here we are.”
Salutatorian Abby Tate said she did not know what to say to her classmates.
“Everything that I thought had prepared me for this moment, I have come to realize has only prepared us for the brink of life, not saying goodbye to the people we hold the closest in our heart,” she said. 
She said the class of 2018 turned out the way they “were supposed to be.”
“I stand before you today, a masterpiece of my failures and a work of the impressions of those who brought me up from defeat,” Tate said. “The way we turned out, so to speak, is a compilation of the love of those around us, ideas that crashed and burned, and the taste of the victory that accompanies our accomplishments. We, class of 2018, are exactly who we are suppled to be.”