"People deserve kindness" | Manhattan High Class of 2023 receives diplomas

The Manhattan-Ogden school district held its 109th annual graduation ceremony in Bramlage Coliseum Sunday. The Class of 2023 consisted of 442 seniors, many of whom began high school amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. MHS Principal Mike Dorst said in his speech that he appreciated the strength the senior class showed as students moved through the uncertainty of schooling during a pandemic.

“I’m confident that you will take your experiences into whatever awaits you, and do great things,” Dorst said.

Senior class president Eddie Bruegger said in his speech that, no matter where students’ high school journeys led them, “you all made it here, the finish line.”

“I believe that this graduating class of 2023 has the qualities of perseverance, strength, and kindness, that a Manhattan High School graduate should possess,” Bruegger said.

Bruegger said the Class of 2023 only served one full semester in their freshman year, at the MHS-East Campus building at 901 Poyntz Ave. — which Bruegger said had water dripping from the ceiling on both top and bottom floors.

“Just seven months after starting school, we left for spring break, and never came back that year,” Bruegger said. “As for the 9th grade center, we never saw that building again. We only got a taste of what it was like to be a high school student.”

Bruegger told his fellow students about how difficult it was to learn as a remote student, and that he was happy to return to in-person learning in the fall 2021 semester. He said he’s learned one major thing during his time as a high school student.

“People deserve kindness,” Bruegger said. “Coming out of the pandemic and lockdown, everyone had their own struggles and challenges. However, we still went out of our way to help each other. For many people, even if you don’t know what they’re going through, a simple ‘hello’ can be enough to brighten their mood for the rest of the day. Small gestures can have a big impact.”

Bruegger wrapped up his speech with a quote from legendary late blues musician B.B. King.

“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you,” Bruegger quoted.

In Martin’s speech, she said what the Class of 2023 achieved was “so much more than the pandemic’s effects on us.”

“Honestly, in the future, when I look back on my high school years, it won’t be the pandemic that comes to mind first,” Martin said.

“It’ll be the football team, which won the 6A State Championship. It’ll be us, in a standing ovation in Rezac Auditorium, when Ms. Walters told us of our record-breaking absence rate in the entire state. It’ll be the student sections, the awful playlist at prom, it’ll be my friends and favorite teachers.”

Martin told her classmates she has no idea “what the future holds, or what the next step is, or how to do my taxes, for that matter.”

“But then I remembered the most important piece of advice that I’ve ever been told, and it came from my own dad,” Martin said. “Every day when I left for school in the morning my dad would say, ‘Go be great.’ Every day, without fail. And on bad days … whatever the reason, my dad would say at the end of the day, ‘Well kid, just suck less tomorrow.’ … So, in the next few years, when you’re feeling stuck, like you just hit rock-bottom, just remember there’s always an opportunity to start over and try again. And, as long as you attempt to, for lack of better words ‘suck less,’ then you’re already on the road to improvement.”