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 There is a good reason they call these ceremonies "commencement exercises." Graduation is not the end; it's the beginning. ~Orrin Hatch See May 24, 2010 www.parispi.net.
 As students and educators practiced Friday afternoon, clouds loomed overhead, threatening to move the outdoor ceremony indoors. Each student was given passes for relatives and loved ones to attend an indoor graduation, just in case. Spirits were high and students expressed excitement and apprehension about the commencement exercise.
 Even though the clouds were still overhead, the evening graduation ceremony was viewed by a "standing room only" crowd who watched over 300 graduates walk across the stage and receive a diploma.
By BILL McCUTCHEON
P-I Staff Writer
Published: Monday, May 24, 2010 11:53 AM CDT
A few raindrops came down, a few hundred umbrellas went up, then came down.
But the rain held off, even with the addition of rumbles of thunder and darkening clouds, and the graduation of more than 335 seniors from Henry County High School Friday night went on as planned.
More than an hour before the start of the ceremonies, it was standing room only at Patriot Stadium. At 7:30, the HCHS Band began playing the familiar strains of the “Pomp and Circumstance” march, and the long line of red-robed seniors began winding its way down the hill from the school, across the parking lot and into the stadium.
A chorus sang the school alma mater and later sang “Omnia Sol” by Z. Randall Stroope.
Following opening remarks by Ashli Scott, senior class president, the top three students of the Class of 2010 addressed their classmates as families and friends listened.
Maggie Hudson said she was just as “nerdy” as her valedictorian title implied, so she’d have to ignore the online advice she sought about giving a graduation speech.
“According to the Web, I should talk about pop culture of the past four years, reminisce about the football games we won and the highlights of prom,” Hudson said.
Acknowledging the closest she gets to appreciating pop culture is reading the No. 1 New York Times bestseller and, while she knew the Patriots won a lot of football games, she hadn’t a clue which games were important.
Giving up on that tactic, Hudson asked her dad what advice he’d give a graduating senior.
“He thought about it for a minute, and then he said, ‘B’s are unacceptable,’” she said, “and I told him that was awfully high expectations. College is going to be a lot harder to make high grades.”
Hudson went on to explain her dad was not talking about grades, but about bees, the buzz-buzz, honey-kind of bees.
“Then, he added, ‘Graduating seniors shouldn’t live their lives like bees do.’”
The valedictorian then explained what she had learned in research: The three different social classes of bees are the worker bee, the drone and the queen bee.
“Seniors, you do not want to live your life like a worker bee,” she said, “you need to have some time to have fun and spend time with others.”
The purpose of the second type of bee, the drone, is to mate with the queen bee.
“Basically, drones just live to have fun,” Hudson said, “but even bees know you can’t just do fun things all the time, because when times get tough, they kick the drones out of the hive.”
The last type of bee is the queen bee and as she lays all the eggs, her goal in life is just to have a family.
“Being a mom or dad is great, but it shouldn’t be your purpose in life,” Hudson said.
“If not being bee-like means not working, not having fun or not having a family, what does it mean?” Hudson concluded. “It means ‘all of the above,’” she said, “bees live incomplete lives because they restrict themselves to only one avenue of activity.
“We must branch out and live complete lives with interests in many areas,” Hudson said, “Seniors, I encourage you to wonder and to hope until our dreams build a better tomorrow. Bees are unacceptable.”
Salutatorian J.T. Salmon told his classmates the new chapter of their lives beginning with commencement will not make them adults.
“Success is what will make us adults,” he said, “and in order to be successful, we must obtain knowledge from failures and mistakes.”
He said each and every one of the graduates had already overcome and learned from some mistake or failure during high school.
“What is important is what we will learn from our mistakes and failures in the future and how we use this knowledge to succeed.”
Salmon then quoted Benjamin Franklin: “ … be studious in your profession and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy.”
Matthew Carson, honorable mention student of the Class of 2010, said, “I simply have one piece of advice to offer each of the students graduating here tonight: ‘don’t give up.’”
Carson added, “I know that each one of us here tonight has undergone difficulties in our lives, most of which were beyond our control. We have overcome our individual, singular adversities, and we have reached the pinnacle of our high school careers, graduation.”
The senior concluded, “I stand before you tonight with complete faith that each of you will continue on toward bright and prosperous futures.
“As I leave you tonight, I hope you only remember this one sentiment, ‘Don’t give up.’”
Closing remarks were made by Katie Reimold, senior class vice president.
Then, following a few brief remarks, HCHS principal Lennies McFerren began reading the names of the graduating seniors who made their way onto the stage. There Tricia Reimold, Henry County Board of Education chairman, and Sam Miles, county director of schools, presented diplomas to the graduates.
At the end of the ceremony, McFerren pronounced the Henry County High School Class of 2010 graduated and they rose as one, tossing their mortarboards toward a waning crescent moon which suddenly was visible in an almost cloudless sky.
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