A year unlike any other drew to a close for the class of 2021 at Lisbon Sunday, May 23, when 43 seniors received their diplomas.
Lisbon secondary principal Aaron Becker noted that the uncertainty of the weather Sunday moved the district to hold the ceremony indoors.
“In this year that has been all about having a Plan B and a Plan C, why would today be any different?” Becker said.
Becker commended members of the class for their resilience and for being a role model to younger classes as they dealt with mask wearing throughout the year, virtual learning, not seeing friends and other challenges.
Becker shared some similes from Twitter about the pandemic year – it was a year that was like using a permanent marker on a dry erase board, being one of them.
“I know this year wasn’t what we all envisioned the last year of your high school to be,” Becker said.
Paige Roos and Cassie Ross were the class speakers for the class of 2021.
They noted in their brief speech several favorite memories of fellow classmates, like the time Truman Krob gave himself a bloody nose while hypnotized as he tried to drop kick a tarantula.
“Wherever life’s journeys from here will take us, we’ll always have Lisbon Schools as our foundation of learning,” Roos said.
While the many trials and tribulations of the pandemic were disruptive they also helped to bring the senior class closer together, Ross noted
Lisbon teacher Cathy Awtry was the class’s chosen speaker.
Awtry recounted how she had originally arrived at Lisbon, after her husband lost a job at a community in northern Iowa. When he was offered a job in southeast Iowa, life in the community she had known was upended. She struggled to find a district to teach at for a while, but got a part-time teaching job at Lisbon.
After her first year, that part-time teaching job led to teaching the sixth grade language arts classes at Lisbon, this year’s class of 2021. The next year, she was teaching them as seventh- and eighth-grade middle school English teacher.
“I never had so much fun in my life then the years I was teaching you all,” Awtry said. “I remember our dances to start classes to ‘Sugar’ by Maroon 5 or ‘Shake it Off’ by Taylor Swift. Of course, we still learned about books and writing, too.”
Awtry asked that students at Lisbon never underestimate the power of fun in their lives.
“My life goals changed what I thought they were eight years ago,” Awtry said. “You and your class, however, reminded me why I had become a teacher in the first place and helped me find my passion for teaching again.”
Awtry encouraged the students to be the creative and humorous force of nature they have been as they move forward into life.
Graduate Truman Krob plays the tuba during Sunday, May 23 graduation ceremony at Lisbon.