PEABODY — Bishop Fenwick High School presented 129 diplomas and sunflowers to the graduating class of 2022 at their 60th Annual Commencement Thursday, May 26.
As the Fenwick Band performed a rendition of Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing,” the graduating class, many holding their caps down to keep the wind from blowing them away, formed a line at the field. Friends and family members rushed to take photos of the graduates’ excited and nervous faces.
After the winner of the John J. Meehan Service award, Administrative Assistant Patricia Lafleur, was announced by Salutatorian Patrick O’Neil, Valedictorian Ethan Troy Henshaw delivered a bittersweet speech in which he contemplated his regret for having spent his high school years studying and rarely socializing.
“Younger me came here with a rather warped view of reality and life […] I had to get perfect grades and take the hardest classes, and my time here would only be so enjoyable. I didn’t mind that, I wanted to take the path less traveled. I can assure you it’s less traveled for a damn good reason,” Henshaw said. “When your mind becomes trapped in the future, you forget to live in the present.”
Henshaw went on to advise his former classmates to use their regrets from high school to pave their lives in college.
“I stand here unsure of whether to be proud of my accomplishments or angry at myself for wasting so much time […] As painful as it may feel to hold the regrets that I do, they’re more tools I can use to better myself,” Henshaw said. “Contemplate those regrets and the lesson they give you. Do not try to forget them and do not try to bury them.”
As President Thomas Nunan and Assistant Dean of Students Christopher Canniff handed diplomas to the graduates, the crowd, who had been instructed to hold their applause, honked and cheered for their family members and friends.
Following the changing of the tassel, Nunan delivered a charge to the graduates in which he quoted Martin Heidegger, Bob Dylan, Ed Sheeran, and Jesus Christ. He reminded students that they were each other’s “Shelter From the Storm” throughout the pandemic, and promised the graduating class that each one of them could call Bishop Fenwick home at any time.
“Be that light. Think of yourself as a high beam flashlight and bring light into the world that desperately needs it,” Nunan said. “Believe, hope, even in times of transition you will be fine. I pray that each of you have found love and felt love here, right where you are now. In struggle and success, in tragedy and triumph, in bad times and good, come back to Fenwick. This is your school, this is your home, this is your family. We will be here for you always, we will be light, and warmth, and joy, and shelter, and love, and forever, you will be family.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
