Braden Majic
Carihi Mirror
Carihi’s Grad Class of 2018 cast their votes for a candidate out of four options for valedictorian during the student-led assembly on Monday, May 7.
Before school was let out that afternoon, it was announced that Grade 12 student and grad executive member Sarah Robinson had been nominated.
“It’s important to speak to everyone’s place and everyone’s Carihi experience,” Robinson said.
She has always lived in Campbell River. Here she began her school journey at Ripple Rock Elementary, then onto École Phoenix, before the finish line now at Carihi.
When she first came to Carihi in Grade 9, she was not involved in any extracurriculars other than volleyball, which she did eventually let go.
The following year is when Robinson really kicked off her high school journey by joining leadership, musical theatre, and the Interact club.
“Grade 11 was definitely my favourite year,” Robinson said. “It’s kind of when you finally get into the groove of high school.”
Now in Grade 12, Robinson, like the rest of her classmates, has experienced how exciting, hectic, stressful, and rewarding the experience has proved itself to be.
“Once you feel like you are connected to a school, you actually want to go to school,” she said.
Grade 12 is an experience where students are comfortable with their daily high school life, they know and have befriended their teachers, and are now becoming acquainted with nearly everyone in their grad class.
“Especially at Carihi, because we are quite unique in many ways… it’s almost like you’re home,” said Robinson. “It just feels like your school, and that can be hard because you know it is going to end within a year.”
Although the word ‘apathy’ has been tossed around to describe this year’s grad class, whether as a joke or otherwise, Robinson sees them in a different light.
“Everyone has a way they’re connected to the school that’s different. You have to just acknowledge that everyone is different and how they connect,” she said.
She feels that everyone has their place in the school and that, really, her grad classmates have become closer together, and for a very good reason.
“In the end these are kids you’ve spent 13 years with and… you’ve always been together, and we are never going to be together [again] like we were.”
After the announcement on that Monday afternoon, Robinson received major support from her inner circle of friends, but also from students and teachers she did not know very well.
“I’m very honoured, but that’s kind of nerve wracking because I want to do well for [the class] and make sure everyone in that room knows what Carihi was like for us,” she said while thinking ahead to her valedictory speech.
That being said, her ultimate goal is have everyone leave with something after she is done talking.
“People will forget what I said, but if I can say one thing that a grad can remember, that is the most important thing,” she added.
In these last few days of school, take the time to enjoy the little things. Take a moment to think about what you will remember in 20 years from now rather than the normal class-to-class routine.
“Just appreciate everything we have that’s left because it is never going to be the same after June. We can come back, but it won’t be our Carihi anymore,” Robinson said.
The graduation ceremony will be on Wednesday, June 27 at 5 p.m., with doors opening at 4 p.m. at Strathcona Gardens.