PHOTO | PAULA MULLER
Graduating seniors at Macdonald Stadium in Malden on Sunday.
By STEVE FREKER
MALDEN — Nearly every senior who assembled in a sea of blue at Malden’s Macdonald Stadium for one of the longest-running annual commencements in the state rose early and spent the better part of Sunday morning preparing for graduation.
Felicia Lombardi told her classmates Sunday she has been ready for graduation since her first day of classes as a freshman. But she urged her classmates to step back from their futures and enjoy the present.
“I assume that most of you right now are eager for the ceremony to be over, eager to start celebrating, and eager for summer festivities,” the Malden High School Class of 2017 class orator said. “As for me, I feel like I have been ready to graduate since August of 2013.
“We just spent 13 years in school planning for the future. If you think about it, right now is just yesterday’s future,” Lombardi said. “If we spend all our time planning for what’s to come, we will miss what is here now. As much as you want to walk across the stage and shake (MHS principal) Mr. Lombardi’s hand, sit back for a second, relax, smile, and enjoy what you have worked so hard for — enjoy this moment.”
The 446 members of the Malden High Class of 2017 were the stars of the show at the sun-splashed home of the Golden Tornadoes Sunday. Malden Mayor Gary Christenson and first-year Malden High principal Ted Lombardi shared the theme of Felicia Lombardi.
Superintendent Dr. Charles Grandson IV also greeted the graduating seniors and gave them a warm sendoff. In fact, he was the last official to address them, formally validating their credentials as an immediate precursor to the traditional “Tossing of the Mortarboards.”
“You are set to begin a long and successful journey and we are proud of each and every one of you and wish all of you nothing but the best,” Mayor Christenson said.
The principal told the graduates they have already made their mark as a class that exemplifies the spirit of the school and its students. “This class has shown it truly cares about each other and that is valuable at all stages of your lives.”
Class Valedictorian Cleverina Cong urged her classmates to embrace their diversity and to “dare to be different.
“One of the most important lessons I’ve taken away from high school is that you can’t always play it safe. I’ve made all kinds of mistakes throughout the years but at a certain point, you learn to embrace your screw-ups and learn from them,” Cong said. “Take a chance. Take a leap. Take a risk. Take an L, then take a bow. But most importantly, take it in.”
Cong evoked rapper Kanye West is her valedictory speech. “If there’s anything even remotely useful you can take from this, it’s this one piece of advice: take risks. Take calculated risks that make sense,” Cong said. “The great philosopher Kanye West once rapped the thought-provoking line, ‘Name one genius that ain’t crazy.’ Because every discovery, every masterpiece, and every instance of greatness in history has been the result of some kind of deviation from normalcy.”
Class Salutatorian Don Nguyen had some heartfelt words for the school where he and his classmates have spent the last four years. “No matter our journeys’ destination, we can’t forget that our road trips started here at Malden High School. Here is where we all fueled ourselves up with the basic knowledge for the rest of our lives,” Nguyen said. “Here is where we took out a map and decided where to go in the next few years instead of driving around aimlessly. Here is where our parents no longer had to do the steering for us anymore; we are the ones stepping on the gas to take ourselves places now.”
Cong summed up the day perfectly and poignantly: “It has truly been an honor to have shared this journey with you all … please don’t forget about each other, and don’t forget about Malden, the city that raised us so well, and the city we’ll always call home.”
