Fun, sun and ceremony

PORTALES - In a school year full of difficult days, the 2021 class of Portales High School closed out high school Saturday with a day of fun, sun and optimistic eyes on their upcoming adulthood.

The morning graduation, held outdoors at Greyhound Stadium due to COVID-19 concerns, was postponed from its original schedule of Friday night for what turned out to be well-founded fears of a powerful storm.

A sunny morning greeted a crowd of more than 1,000 friends and family, 151 listed graduates and three beach balls that were predictably smuggled into the student section.

The 90-minute ceremony was more than filled with congratulations, memories and encouragement going forward following an entire senior year in a pandemic that shifted between remote learning and in-person learning.

In the welcome address, Luis Cruz said the "world's most talented, intelligent visionaries" comprised the graduating class, and their skills and experience were exactly what the world would need. He told classmates to not be deterred by failure, because failure in itself is a means of progress.

"You're exactly who you're meant to be," Cruz said. "This world needs you."

The school did not have valedictorian and salutatorian speeches, but honored Taryn Wood and Laura Blaeser in their own sections, along with presentations for honors graduates, bilingual seal earners and both a song and an honorary diploma for fellow senior Jackson Swift, who died during the class’ sophomore year.

Just reaching the commencement felt like no small feat, even before weather pushed the celebration back. The high school was ordered into remote learning by the Public Education Department less than three weeks before the commencement. The decision was ultimately reversed, but seniors remained in remote learning for the remainder of their year to protect an in-person graduation.

In the class farewell address, Josiah Tellez spoke fondly of a four-year journey that started with freshman memories in the courtyard and continued with extension requests on papers he'd procrastinated on and the trouble he got into during pep rallies for poorly timed confetti cannons.

"Our fun memories of high school are ending," Tellez said. "Our memories of adulthood are just beginning. We are here graduating today, even though the odds were all against us."