By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE, Maine — Though Limestone Class of 2012 knew that they would enter the June 16 graduation ceremony as students and exit commencement as Limestone alumni, they probably didn’t expect to be handed a golf ball along the way.
Guest speaker and Limestone teacher Robert Souther gave graduates the golf balls which, as the graduates would come to understand after his speech, were little reminders to stay focused on the things that really matter in life.
Souther shared a story about a professor who filled a glass jar with golf balls and asked his class if the jar was full. When the students agreed, the professor poured pebbles into the jar and again asked if it was full. The students again agreed, and the process continued until the jar was filled with golf balls, pebbles, sand and water until the jar was indeed full.
“This jar represents your life,” Souther said.
He explained to the graduates that the golf balls are the most important things that matter in life — God, their families, their health, children, friends and favorite passions; if everything else in the jar was emptied and only the golf balls remained, their lives would still be full.
The pebbles, Souther said, were other things that matter, like their jobs, their homes and their cars, and the sand is representative of all the small things in life.
“If you put the sand into the jar first, there’s no room for the pebbles or the golf balls,” Souther told the graduates. “If you spend all your time and energy on the small things, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. So you need to pay close attention to the things that are critical to your happiness; if you don’t, you will probably miss out on life altogether,” he continued. “Because of this, never forget to ask yourself ‘what are the golf balls in my life?’ and once you identify them, be sure to put them in your jar of life first.”
Souther told the graduates that there will always be time for the small stuff, like cleaning their apartments and homes or washing their cars, but they should always take care of the things that matter first.
“The rest is just pebbles and sand,” he said.
Each speaker at Limestone’s graduation touched on the hardships they will undoubtedly face in life, and many spoke of the challenges the graduates had already faced.
“There are amazing stories in front of you,” Limestone Community School Principal Leland Caron told the audience, referring to the Class of 2012. To the 24 graduates, he encouraged them to go forward in life with the same perseverance they’d shown during their time at the school.
A testament to their class determination, the Eagle Award was created this year to honor a student from future graduating classes who has overcome tremendous obstacles; presented by LCS teacher Ken Hixon and Caron, this year’s Eagle Award recipient was the entire Class of 2012. The Eagle Award Plaque is on display in the school’s lobby, and each recipient’s name will be added to it every year.
In her valedictory speech, Emily St. Pierre described to her class the stories of three individuals “who had a rocky start in life, but came out on top because they chose not to let setbacks stop them from reaching their dreams,” she said, sharing briefly the determination of J.K. Rowling, Walt Disney and Stephen King.
“These days everyone is asking us ‘what will you do with your future?’” St. Pierre said. “As I see it, we all have two choices. We can choose to do the bare minimum and only get by, or we can choose to succeed,” she said, adding that they must never forget that success doesn’t happen without failures.
During her welcome address, Class President Vessa Villarreal encouraged her classmates not to procrastinate.
“Procrastination is a weakness of ours. Procrastination is not the key to success and the sooner we learn that, the better off we will be,” she said. “If you want something, don’t wait for it to land in front of you because sadly, it won’t.”
“If you want something, chase it and don’t stop until you’ve reached your goal,” Villarreal added.
Salutatorian Ashley Drost wished her classmates the best in their futures and stated her hopes that they would all take what they’d learned at the Limestone Community School with them through life.
“Our future is here, and now we have to be ready to pursue it, whether we like it or not,” she said.
