MANCHESTER – Standing at a podium Thursday night, Alvirne High School valedictorian Adam Banatwala guaranteed his graduating classmates one thing: at some point in the next 50 years, he will run a Google search on their names.

“I hope to see some of you again, but who knows,” he said.

He gave individual recognitions to many of his classmates, wishing them luck in their intended paths, be it higher education, career or military-related.

“All of us, the entire class of 2018, can do great things in this world, and I hope we do,” Banatwala added.

Approximately 285 graduating seniors walked across the stage at the Southern New Hampshire University Arena Thursday, turned their tassels and officially became Alvirne High School alumni.

With that new label, senior class President Cassandra Shelley urged her classmates to simply remember.

“Remember that Alvirne is where you experienced some of your most life-changing moments,” she said. “It’s where you may have had your first touchdown, first heartbreak, first solo, first detention, first A (or F) in a class …. Each moment spent at Alvirne has led us here.”

Shelley’s speech followed a performance of “From Now On” by Pasek and Paul, sung by the school’s “B-Naturals,” of which she is also a part.

Despite some of the seniors getting emotional and visibly holding back tears during the song, school Principal Steven Beals still saw and noted the joy on many of their faces.

His own daughter among the graduates, Beals told students that as a coach, a dad and a community member, he has known some of them and watched them grow since kindergarten.

“A part of my heart is leaving as you leave the school,” he said.

The speakers shared memories from their four years at Alvirne, many of them funny anecdotes, while the air was one of celebration.

However, there was one person not there to partake in the merriment and his absence was well felt.

Salutatorian Hayden Callery dedicated his speech to Matthew Crosson, an Alvirne teacher who died unexpectedly in December.

Crosson, he said, was “a man who held such a scope of influence that his electric voice still rings through the halls of Alvirne.”

Crosson believed in him and he believed in people – so much so that Callery said he helped show him how to do the same.

Because of this, he believes in the class of 2018, he said.

“We are the class who never stops believing the world can get better, as long as there are a few people willing to make it so,” Callery added.

Before closing her speech, which was the last before Beals made his remarks and began handing out diplomas, Shelley left her classmates with a few final words.

“Remember that you will always be welcome to the barn with open arms and you will always be a Bronco.”

Hannah LaClaire can be reached at 594-1243 or hlaclaire@nashuatelegraph.com.

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