Southold High School graduated its Class of 2016 this afternoon in a ceremony that was by turns emotional, euphoric and reflective.
The class of 67 students was by far the smallest to graduate on the North Fork this weekend, which both the valedictorian and salutatorian said helped the students forge lifelong bonds of friendship and community.
“We all grew up in the small town of Southold, where everyone knows everyone,” Noah Mina, salutatorian, said during his speech. “When there’s a break-up in school, the news reaches everyone within a period or two.”
But the size of the town and its tiny high school, Mina said, makes the community into “one big family.”
Aidan Walker, valedictorian, echoed this sentiment. “On the surface, we all just attended the same high school for four years,” he told the packed high school auditorium. “But with all our experiences together and the relationships we’ve built and the time we’ve spent together, it’s fair to say we’re our own tight-knit community inside this building.”
The closeness of the school made it that much more difficult for the students when their classmate, Ronan Guyer, died of a heart attack as a freshman in 2012.
Walker led a moment of silence in Guyer’s memory at the beginning of the ceremony.
“We’ve had to deal with the tragic losses of an old friend and a coach during our school years,” he said in his valedictory address. “Through all the ups and downs, we’ve grown closer as a group than no one could have really expected.”
Together, students in the Class of 2016 are receiving more than $1.17 million in tuition, awards, scholarships and bonds. Two students are going on to join the United States military.
