NORTH SMITHFIELD – Students in the North Smithfield High School Class of 2025 bid farewell to the teachers, administrators and classmates who helped to shape their last four years at a commencement ceremony held in the courtyard of the school on Friday, June 6.
Salutatorian Grace Aleksiewicz addressed the crowd gathered to celebrate the graduates, by first reading a poem titled “The Seedling” by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
As a quiet little seedling
Lay within its darksome bed,
To itself it fell a-talking,
And this is what it said:
“I am not so very robust,
But I’ll do the best I can;”
And the seedling from that moment
Its work of life began.
So it pushed a little leaflet
Up into the light of day,
To examine the surroundings
And show the rest the way.
The leaflet liked the prospect,
So it called its brother, Stem;
Then two other leaflets heard it,
And quickly followed them.
To be sure, the haste and hurry
Made the seedling sweat and pant;
But almost before it knew it
It found itself a plant.
The sunshine poured upon it,
And the clouds they gave a shower;
And the little plant kept growing
Till it found itself a flower.
Little folks, be like the seedling,
Always do the best you can;
Every child must share life’s labor
Just as well as every man
And the sun and showers will help you
Through the lonesome, struggling hours,
Till you raise to light and beauty
Virtue’s fair, unfading flowers.
Aleksiewicz noted that she and her classmates were once like the seedlings, “small, fragile, uncertain, and new, just beginning to explore the world.”
“And like the seedlings who were once so young, we began to grow,” she said. “We left our parents and went to school. A little taller but still unsure, we learned to make friends and found people to grow alongside. Soon enough, we had found ourselves with lives tangled together, helping each other spread our leaves and reach out our branches.”
“Although there came times when it seemed we’d never make it through the storm of life, we found spots of shining sunlight and nourishing rain to help us keep going,” Aleksiewicz said. “Through all of the difficult times and struggles we finally made it through. We made it through four long years and are finally here tonight.”
Aleksiewicz said that like flowers, members of the Class of 2025 were “all different and special in their own ways, but still connected.”
“Our differences make us who we are and that is what makes the world beautiful,” she said. “I encourage you all to always sttay true to yourself and celebrate what makes each person special within this field of wildflowers we call the world.”
Valedictorian Madeline McCauley said that when she sat down to write her speech she found herself struggling to find the words that would resonate with the crowd and turned to the internet, watching countless commencement speeches and reading a variety of quotes and poems in search of inspiration.
“But the more I searched, I realized that nobody else has experienced this. This town. This school. And the past four years with these people,” McCauley said. “So, for the next few minutes, I’d like to ask everyone to take a deep breath, look around and feel this very moment in time.”
“I’d like to talk to you about one thing that unites us all: the passing of time,” McCauley said. “Growing up in North Smithfield has given our class a unique advantage that many other graduating classes don’t have: a strong sense of community.”
McCauley highlighted elements of the students’ shared experience from plays and field trips to living through a pandemic.
“All of these miniscule moments have led us here today as much different people than when this journey started,” she said. “We stand up here today as young men and women with an endless amount of possibilities in front of us.”
“I’m more proud of is to say I’m a part of something bigger than a graduating class,” McCauley said, pointing to achievements of her peers. “I’m a part of a community where I got to watch Teagan McMahon help over 45 girls afford a prom dress for her senior project. Where I got to watch Mia Remeika get into her dream school to pursue music education after helping run the elementary school’s music program. Where I got to watch Nate Gravel use sonar technology with his mentor who does underwater searches when someone has gone missing. Where I got to watch Janna Creighton and Audrey Doyle raise money for cancer research in honor of lost loved ones.”
“Although these are just a few of the students from this graduating class, the list could go on, and on when it comes to the impact we’ve made on this community. As things came to an end, I realized that my time here was not measured by the clock anymore… It’s about the people, the laughter, the memories, and the growing up we did together.”
“Even though we may not walk the same hallways anymore, we’ll always be a part of the same story… one that started here,” McCauley said. “Thank you, and congratulations Class of 2025. We did it!”
Photos by Sandy Hall
