PROSPERITY — Mid-Carolina High School said farewell to the Class of 2019 as the graduates were presented their diplomas Wednesday evening.
Before the Class of 2019 could officially call themselves alumni, commencement speaker Stuart Lake, University of South Carolina assistant baseball coach and MCHS graduate, provided the graduates with a few valuable pieces of advice before they walked across the stage.
For Lake, the opportunity to speak before the class was very important seeing as his nephew Alex was in the graduating class; and simply because Lake loves where he is from. This year also marks the 30th year since Lake graduated MCHS.
“My mom picks on me because I don’t usually write things down to do these speeches, I just kind of hear what the other speakers have done and just go with it, because Lauren Shealy and Jacob Shealy used words I really don’t know what they mean — nor could I pronounce,” Lake joked.
Like many people, Lake was unsure of what he wanted to do and was left trying to figure out what was next for him.
“I loved baseball, but I wasn’t good enough to play major league, so I thought maybe I would be good enough to be a major league umpire — didn’t enjoy it. If you ever want to be lonely, be an umpire,” he said.
So where would a youth from Stoney Hill/Newberry County go to collect his thoughts? According to Lake, the answer: Walmart.
It was in Walmart where Lake would find the posters and come across a quote/poem called “Footprints in the Sand,” which depicts a man/woman walking on a beach with God and seeing two sets of footprints, theirs and God’s.
“See how many footprints would be in your sand,” Lake said.
Lake also encouraged the graduates to be the footprints for others, while continuing to present and carry themselves with respect.
In Valedictorian Lauren Shealy’s address to her classmates, Shealy took the time to thank her family, teachers, faculty and staff at Mid-Carolina.
“You not only dealt with us for the past four years, you have molded us into the adults we are today for which I am grateful,” she said.
Shealy thanked her best friend and Salutatorian Jacob Shealy and noted “contrary to what we made most of our substitute teachers believe, we are not twins.”
For Shealy, graduation meant more than just ‘thank yous’ and ‘congratulations.’ It is a time of celebration, endings and beginnings.
“Tonight we celebrate all we have accomplished in our years of schooling,” Shealy said. “Mostly we celebrate all the friends and memories we made and the marks we’ve left.”
While the class would leave MCHS as alumni, Shealy encouraged her classmates to follow their passions, keeping in mind being successful is not weighed by numerical value and always choosing kindness.
“We have the opportunity to spread kindness wherever we go,” she said.
Like Shealy, Salutatorian Jacob Shealy spoke highly of his best friend achieving the rank of valedictorian.
“I wouldn’t want to lose to anyone else. Lauren, thank you for the many fun times our friendship has brought throughout high school and always reassuring me that I would never be valedictorian,” he said.
In preparing for his speech, Shealy’s uncle asked who he was going to thank. It was also Shealy’s uncle who told him one day he would be giving a speech and it would be important to thank the special people in his life.
“My family for encouraging me to be the best I can be and providing me with strong and unwavering love; the many teachers I have had through all my years in school, you have played a huge part in my success in this part of my life and lastly thanks to my friends sitting down below me. It was from you that I gained some of the best memories in the last four years. You have made my high school experience unforgettable to say the least; I know there a several incriminating Snapchats to prove it,” Shealy said.
To his fellow classmates, Shealy congratulated them on all of their successes and achievements, whether they were student-athletes balancing practice and games or involved in clubs such as Student Council.
“All of which present a great deal of responsibility, but you did not shy away from the challenge, you welcomed it,” he said. “If you are here tonight, you are graduating and that you should be proud of.”
One piece of advice Shealy gave to his classmates as they prepare for the next chapter of their lives was to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
“I’m sure one of the biggest nights of our lives we are a little uncomfortable. In the future, you will probably encounter very important situations that will make you very uncomfortable such as job interviews, speeches, tests or private conversations. These moments will be very instrumental in determining how far you go in life,” Shealy said.
From his own experience, Shealy was recently asked in a scholarship interview what his life motto was, to which he could not give an answer. After thinking it over, Shealy determined his life motto was ‘Fake it till you make it,’ which for Shealy meant “when everything is going wrong, choose to be confident, eventually your confidence will pay off and things will get better.”
On a final note, Shealy challenged his classmates to go into the world and exude confidence because they all have the ability to change the world.
“Nothing but student loan debt will be holding us back,” he joked.
