Growth & future are theme at Wahluke graduation

MATTAWA - Twin valedictorians Diana Silverio and Faustino Dominguez reminded the 2015 Wahluke High School graduating seniors of their beginnings and spoke of the awaiting future at graduation Saturday night.

There were 82 graduates presented to the community by Principal Jeff Pietila at the high school gym. It was the eighth and last class of his tenure at Wahluke as he moves on to a new assignment near Spokane.

Presenting the diplomas were School Board Chairman Craig Sabin and Superintendent Aaron Chavez. Speakers included class mentor Samantha Sanders and chosen staff member Joseph Kiesel-Nield. But the evening belonged to the graduates.

"The majority of us come from hard working agriculture families," Dominguez said. "Most of us have experienced agriculture work and witnessed our parents freeze in the winter's cold and burn in the summer's heat.

"Most of our parents couldn't further their education. So let's make their dreams come true. Their dream is for us to keep studying, attend college and/or find a good career."

"I never imagined myself in this position, giving my classmates a speech," Dominguez added. "I want to thank every teacher and coach for challenging me and helping me to get to this place."

Silverio, asking her classmates to close their eyes, took the seniors back to the beginning, 13 years ago, when they looked at the giant doors of a building that might as well have been a prison.

"Remember our mothers getting us ready for school, and for us girls, pulling our hair into a very tight pony tail, and the boys with gel on their hair," she reminisced.

"Te portas bien en la escuela (You better behave in school)," she said. "And once she brought us to school, we held on to her leg crying and begging her to not leave us there alone."

Silverio found the passage of time fascinating. She and her classmates were from the 1990s era. Suddenly they became the graduating class of 2015.

She recalled her days at Saddle Mountain Elementary. She had wanted to be there because of the "Got Caught" program. Students were rewarded with gifts for getting caught as a good student. And there was the Mileage Club.

"I believe that was the only time most of us enjoyed running," she said.

Considering the time that may be or not be left to each member of the class, Dominguez admonished his mates to "make the best" of every second of their lives.

"Our past and present teachers have showed us the strengths we have and the weaknesses we have to work on," he said. "Let's never be satisfied with what's accomplished or we want to accomplish. Let's aim for the stars and have no limits for the goals we want to reach."

Time lost will never be found again, but memories will forever live, Dominguez said, "like that time Alondra rejected my chocolates in fourth grade for Valentines Day."

"The 13 years will pay off today," Dominguez added. "It's time for us to move into the real world, the world where we have to be more responsible and more mature. You have the potential to be somebody in life. Never give up your dreams."

High school was the ultimate challenge in ways other than academic, Silverio said. The freshman year was spent navigating through the obstacles known as upperclassmen.

"The lunch line was a mess," she said. "All the upperclassmen would cheat and get in front of us. And since we were the last to get our lunch, we didn't have any place to sit. So all of us freshmen stuck together and ate outside in the courtyard. When it began to get cold, we had to go inside and some of us would sit by the bathrooms or on the floor."

But all turned out well. As seniors, Silverio and her mates were in charge of many things. And no doubt, the 2014 incoming freshman had to navigate them.

"We are accomplishing a life goal," Silverio said. "Now let's accomplish the next one. Whether you want to be a teacher, a chef, a doctor, a psychologist or professional athlete, take that goal and accomplish it.

"Go out into the world. It has its arms wide open. Smile, laugh, cry, have fun, but never let go of you goals no matter how difficult they become."