What does graduation actually mean?
That was a question posed by Clinton Central School Class of 2018 valedictorian Christopher Rivera in his address to his class and their audience at their commencement Saturday.
The dictionary wasn’t much help to him, he said, but the school calendar listed that June 23 date as “commencement” rather than “graduation.” “Commencement” is defined as “the beginning of something,” Rivera said.
But even that definition didn’t fill his own thoughts on the word, Rivera admitted. For him, the best word he could come up with to describe the day was a journey, he said. Rivera invited the audience to think of a favorite journey, whether it was a hike in the Adirondacks, a long ride to Florida, or the 80s rock band.
So what does a journey have to do with the ceremony? he asked.
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