74°
WESTPORT, Conn. – High school is just around the corner for the 172 eighth-graders who graduated Thursday night from Westport’s Coleytown Middle School.
“This is a moment of unutterable fulfillment and not just for our parents,” Lauren Gottschalk, student leader of the Mustang Team, told her classmates during the moving up ceremony. “This is the day we become young adults.”
The middle school years, Lauren said, are considered by many as the toughest years. Though at times it may have seemed as such, she said she and her classmates learned valuable life lessons over the three years at Coleytown. For example, she said, they’ve all learned how to be respectful and what it takes to be a good friend.
Jenna Patterson, student leader of the Tiger Team, agreed. She said there’s one word that perfectly describes the middle school experience: awkward.
“Middle school is incredibly awkward,” Jenna said to laughs from the hundreds of family and friends gathered in the school auditorium. “But that’s because we needed to find ourselves. We’ve become our own people, but we’re not done yet."
Telling her classmates that each is on his or own path, Jenna finished by quoting Dr. Seus’ “Oh, The Places You’ll Go.”
“You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose,” Jenna read.
Comments