Resilient Bremerton grads told to take chances, keep learning

By Elisha Meyer Kitsap News Group • June 10, 2024 1:30 am

The pleasant surprise of a light blue sky gave Bremerton High School graduates the perfect weather to celebrate the closing of another chapter in their young lives.

It was especially joyful given the way this particular class of 287 students was introduced to high school when their eighth-grade years were cut short, and the COVID pandemic created an unprecedented period of unrest and frustration four years ago onward.

To students like class speaker Nhazyeiah Smithson, it was a teaching tool for both the good and not so good. “COVID has taught us so much. For example: how to be socially awkward, but also how to be resilient when you had no idea what was going on. We just went with the flow and did amazing at it,” she said.

For that night, June 7 at BHS’s Memorial Stadium, pandemic frustrations were in the rear, and the tears of students and faculty alike fell in both joy and relief at the end of this brief journey together.

Staff speaker and English teacher Heather Roossien summed up the unusual circumstances the class faced when saying that words do not teach but only experience does. “We’re all learning by experience. Thank you for persevering through your Zoom classes and COVID protocols. Thank you for being the best you can be, even when you’re having a day,” she said.

The destinations of the individual students are many: some will choose to continue their education, some will enter the workforce and others will follow a high calling to serve in the nation’s armed forces. No matter what, the next classroom for everybody is the classroom of life, principal Ryan Nickels said. “You must make a choice to take a chance in order for your life to change,” he said. “Always be willing to take those chances and keep learning.”