Spring Creek graduation
By Andrew Bell
Published in News on June 10, 2007 2:01 AM
After Spring Creek High School's graduating seniors received their diplomas and turned their tassels Saturday morning, members of the Class of 2007 took their first steps into the next stages of their lives.
But they weren't alone.
Hundreds of family and friends gathered at Kornegay Arena at Mount Olive College to watch the ceremony and to see the 111 graduating seniors walk across the stage.
Some of Daquan Wright's family traveled as far as New Jersey to see him graduate.
"We don't get many chances to come down from New Jersey, but this is the kind of situation where you do anything to get down here," Torrence Wright said of his nephew's graduation. "It's well worth the trip."
Daquan's mother, Denise Hollomon, said it feels like the past 18 years have gone by too fast. But those years did give her the chance to see her son run track, play football and become a conference champion in wrestling at Spring Creek High.
Now, she and the family plan to move to Maryland so they can be closer to Daquan as he begins college there in the fall.
Dan Carter said he was just happy to see that his son, Joshua, had come this far in his young life.
"It's a relief to know that he made it through high school and made it safely," Carter said.
But each parent knew Saturday was one day closer to the time their children would leave the nest and begin a new life somewhere other than home.
Just the thought of it kept the words from coming out of Loretta Beasley's mouth. As she teared up thinking about her son, David, moving on in the fall to begin studying at East Carolina University, she said she was doing all she could to keep that thought out of her mind.
"I'm very excited and very proud. It just makes me realize that my baby's all grown up," Mrs. Beasley said.
And now that the graduates of Spring Creek High have grown up, salutatorian Jason Sutton told his classmates that it is time to define goals and decide what success means to them.
"Set about accomplishing your goals. Accomplishing them will make you happy. What is more important than happiness anyway?" Sutton asked his peers.
Some students said happiness will first come in their summer plans before heading off to school once again in the fall. Cameron Sutton said he will go to Las Vegas all this week and spend as much time surfing on the coast before he heads to North Carolina State University.
Frederick Ellis' plans include a trip to Florida to visit family and to find a job before the work in the classroom begins at East Carolina University later this year.
Marcia McCoy, who was the president of the Student Government Association and a National Honors Society member at Spring Creek, will begin classes early as she takes summer school at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
"College is going to be exciting. I just hope Pembroke's ready for me," Miss McCoy said.
Other students reflected on their time at Spring Creek. For some, like valedictorian Paul Richter and Sutton, they have never learned in another building and have never been anything other than a Spring Creek Gator.
"I think my best memory has been being in the same building for almost 13 years. There's a group of about 25 of us who we've known for nearly our whole lives," Sutton said.
Wherever the road takes each of the Spring Creek students who graduated Saturday, senior class vice president Roland Rengifo said they should make sure the next step they take is a step forward.
"Look ahead at life with an open mind," he said. "Aspire to reach your dreams and goals even if they seem impossible to reach."