Blue Ridge grads celebrate their day

BY STACI WILSON

“When Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson graduated high school, he had no idea he was going to be the coolest man in the world,” Blue Ridge Valedictorian Jeshua DeJesse told his fellow graduates on Saturday.

With movie reviews, gaming advice and the realization that “life’s not fair,” he said, “You’re always going to have to do stuff you don’t want to do – math, the DMV, pretending to be excited when a friend’s baby learns to walk.”

DeJesse encouraged his classmates to, “Find something you love. Don’t do something you hate in life.”

Instead of worrying about things you have no control over like – “aliens could be real,” or “we could be in the matrix” – he said, “Do the best you can.”

Salutatorian Gabrielle Button said the Class of 2015 was already a group of passionate and hard-working people as she recognized the important people in the lives of her fellow grads.

“This is to you,” she said to the families’ of the students on the stage; the teachers; and to the friends “who became more like family and shape us to who we are today.”

“Know that each of you made an imprint on the lives around you,” Button said, and moving forward in life, “Make sure you leave a positive imprint.”

“Thank you for what you’ve given us,” Principal Matthew Nebzydoski told the graduates. “Never stop using the talent you’ve been given. This class experienced hardships at far too young an age. Life’s not always fair. From difficult circumstances, they pressed on. Today is for you.”