MARSHALL - Marshall High School graduate Taylor Besse has always know she wanted to make a graduation speech.
And she wanted to make it a good one, so she turned to Google, which gave her 600,000 ideas, she said.
"As I read, it turned out to be generic," she said. So she followed a favorite quote of hers from William Shakespeare, which was also the MHS Class of 2012 motto "We know what we are, but know not what we may be."
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Photo by Cindy Votruba
Marshall High School graduates Katlyn Bartz, Jessica Barboza Camarena, Jessica Baker and Zachary Bailey stand patiently as the rest of their class processes into the gymnasium Friday for the Class of 2012 graduation ceremony.
Besse, along with fellow graduates Brad Evenson, Kiley Maki and Eric Deutz, addressed the Class of 2012 Friday night at the 124th annual Marshall High School commencement. Maki was also named class valedictorian.
Besse said that they'll be making their way out into the "big kid world."
"We don't know what will happen tomorrow or 10 minutes from now," she said.
Besse told her classmates they made her who she is today, both the good and the bad.
"We molded each other into what we are today," she said.
Besse herself plans to go to Minnesota State University, Mankato and major in speech pathology and "then eventually president," she said.
Evenson opened his speech by saying that "we are all failures," that we have all failed at something important or something we still haven't learned.
But failing is what causes us to learn, Evenson said.
"Because of our failures, we have learned to grow together," Evenson said. "Marshall High School gave us the skills and the tools of what is to come ahead."
What's coming ahead for Evenson is studying agriculture education and communication at South Dakota State University.
Some of the graduates, like Nicki McKenzie, already has life planned out after graduation. McKenzie said she will go to Southwest Minnesota State University for her general classes and agribusiness and then transfer to North Dakota State University for entrepreneurship and animal science.
"I've always wanted animals, it's my passion," she said. She said she wants to open her own business training animals or giving them shelter. "Really just a rescue place for animals."
Jenny Homan had taken a class in interior design which spurred her to major in it at SDSU.
"I really enjoyed that class, I wanted to choose a career that I would enjoy," Homan said.
Justin Seivert is going to SMSU for computer science.
"I have always loved working with computers and technology and knowing how they work," he said.
Homan, Seivert and McKenzie said they appreciated their years at MHS. Seivert had transferred a lot in the last four years - going to three different schools. He said MHS had a curriculum that was challenging.
"I had to work a bit," he said.
Homan said she enjoyed going to marching band competitions, being in the school plays and speech.
McKenzie said some of her teachers are her best friends and she plans on "coming back over the highway" next year for visits. She added that business teacher Brenda Kellen was an amazing mentor.
"But I'm glad to be done with high school," she said.