Monadnock Beat

Caring, strong and impactful Conant Class of 2021 graduates



JAFFREY, NH — Conant High School’s Class of 2021 has left a unique impact on the school, Conant English teacher Anne Marie Osheyack, who was chosen by the class as the faculty guest speaker, told the class at commencement Friday night.

“Your class has also shown an incredible capacity to care for others. Over these four years, I’ve listened to stories of you opening up your homes for friends who were suddenly without theirs, pulling over your cars in the rain to drive peers to their jobs or school, worrying over friends struggling with mental health, organizing surprise birthday parties and celebrating ‘hot girl summer’ by spending nights at each other’s houses,” Osheyack said. “You have shown up to funerals for people you might not always have gotten along with, out of respect for your friends. And some of you are working jobs where you love and care for the elderly as if they are members of your own family.”

The 52-member Class of 2021 has lost a lot over the past few years and not just because of the pandemic, she said, but have gotten through the hard times through care and concern for others as well as through laughter and humor.

“You mourned the passing of two students these past two years, and then a global pandemic decimated your last year and a half. School has been hard. Your lives have been hard. For some of you, your lives were tumultuous pre-pandemic, and they continue to be tumultuous now. But as I tried to impress upon you in class, and in all the conversations we have, you can do difficult things when you are called upon to do them. And when life demands that you do them, every single one of you is stronger and smarter and more incredible than you might realize. You already possess the tools you need to get you through dark times,” Osheyack said.

Class President Samuel Kalloch joked that while his classmates were full of energy and mischief during class they would say they were too tired to help with any school fundraiser, so he thanked all the parents who helped organize and fund their class events. “

“Class participation in fundraisers was scarce,” he said. “… for the last two years, we’ve joked that the senior trip would be walking to Humiston Field because we couldn’t afford a bus. We couldn’t afford any activities anywhere, except for, of course, walking to Humiston. So the class trip in comparison to what was expected was excellent so thank you, again, parents.”

Valedictorian Megan Graff said speaking in public has always been outside of her comfort zone.

“So here I stand before you now, and I’m without a doubt out of my comfort zone,” she said, but said she always learns from experiences like these. “We must step outside of our comfort zones from time to time. Otherwise we can’t grow.”

She also encouraged her classmates to avoid complacency. “Complacency hides within our comfort zones, but it has no place there. Just as stepping out of our comfort zones can nourish our own personal growth it can also serve to be greatly beneficial to others,” Graff said. “Complacency has allowed so many of us to avoid protecting and standing up for those around us, our neighbors, our peers, our coworkers. Taking even small steps out of our comfort zone has proved to have the capacity to be life-saving.”

Salutatorian Alyssia Maki said her class’ first two and a half years of high school “were pretty typical, minus the fact that we got an entirely new administration, completely switched grading systems, inherited a whole middle school and are now forced to be called learners instead of students.”

“But the last year and a half has been anything but typical. What began as an excuse to miss two weeks of school turned into over a year of remote learning, not being able to see each other’s faces and being robbed of so many important events,” she said, then joking, “Seriously, we were just about to win the homecoming float contest for the fourth year in a row. So you can’t blame us for not having as many happy memories from high school as other classes, because our experience just fell short, in many ways.”

Maki went on to say the small, but mighty, class has had a “mixed bag” of high school experiences. “We lost out on a lot of things. We’ve also seen incredible support from our community.”

She encouraged her classmates to not be defined by their high school years. “I honestly sincerely hope none of us peaked in high school. Honestly, that is just depressing,” she said, adding, “It doesn’t matter as long as we live our lives in a way that fulfills us and doesn’t leave us with regrets.”

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