Yesterday, I graduated from Kingston High School.

That sentence still doesn’t sound real to me.

Looking around during the ceremony, as we giggled in nervous excitement, I saw a lot of disbelief in the faces of my classmates. Like the confusing weather of sun and rain, we felt a chaotic tide of emotions during this one-hour ceremony: melancholy tears, shouts of joy, anxious glances, a few sighs of relief.

Together, we rode this surge of emotions, united as one in our last few minutes as Kingston Buccaneers. Next year, we will all be something else: Huskies, Wildcats, Vikings, Broncos, Bobcats. With our new identities come new communities, memories and friends. We all promise to stay in contact, but in truth we will likely see each other once every 10 years at our reunions, if then.

While we may not see each other every day in the halls of KHS, however, we will always be connected by our time as Kingston Buccaneers. Kingston High School has given us so much over the past four years. The incredible staff and teachers have given us the gift of knowledge. Yet the biggest lessons haven’t been in English or biology or physics (though I did learn quite a bit there), but in life.

At Kingston, we have been pushed to reach for our dreams; the sky is only the beginning of our limits. We have been encouraged to become active members of our community, through clubs and sports and volunteering.

We have been inspired to stand up for our values and beliefs, no matter how unpopular. And we have been taught to work our hardest in each and every aspect of life.

It is these lessons that we will carry with us and use throughout our entire lives as we leave the halls of Kingston High School.

I was wrong when I said we are no longer Buccaneers; by living through the lessons given to us, we will always be Kingston Buccaneers at heart.

I speak for all my classmates when I say, “Thank you, KHS, for all the knowledge and memories you have given us. We will never forget you.”

And, lastly, can I get one more “GO BUCS!”

— This is student columnist Martha Rabura’s last column for KCN. She is headed off to Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Wish her well at martharabura@centurylink.net.