By Shirley O’Shea
Contributing Writer

“You and only you are the composer of your own life. Remember and hold onto the music of your life.”

Those were among the words of inspiration Laura Derouin, president of Cooperstown Central School’s Class of 2009, offered to fellow graduates at the school’s 130th commencement ceremony Sunday, June 21.

Derouin was one of four senior speakers at the ceremony, which was held on the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum, on Otsego Lake. She and the other three — Quinn Bernegger, Peter Kearns and Joelle Lachance — had opted to focus on music as their valedictory theme. “Music helped me through difficult times of change,” LaChance said. Bernegger spoke of a trip he had made to the Czech Republic to sing with a student chorus. There, he learned, “If we have passion, we can do anything. But passion is not all we need. We must also have compassion. What song is more beautiful than a life of compassion?“ Ninety-two seniors graduated Sunday. In black caps and gowns, they filed down the two facing staircases in the rear of the museum and along a tree-lined path as the school’s band played “Pomp and Circumstance” and sailboats glided past on Otsego Lake’s pewter- colored waters. Rain held off for most of the ceremony.

School Superintendent Mary Jo McPhail made opening remarks. She acknowledged the class officers — Derouin, vice President Ryan Davine, secretary Thomas Craig, and treasurer Quinn Hoffman — as well as the senior class members of the student council and its president, Daniel Senif. McPhail also thanked the high school’s faculty and staff, “all of whom spent considerable time guiding these young people,” she said. McPhail noted that the class’ advisor, Thomas Good, was assisting at the school’s concession stand at Doubleday Field during the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Classic event.

CCS’s tradition of having its commencement exercises’ in its idyllic setting at the Fenimore Art Museum is “well respected and coveted in our community,” McPhail said to the audience. She noted that 92 percent of the school’s 2009 graduates will matriculate at college, seven percent will go into business directly after graduation, and one percent are enlisting in the armed services. $212,790 in scholarships were awarded to this year’s CCS graduates, McPhail reported. “We are indeed fortunate,” she said.

Most of the speaking, however, was done by the four designated seniors. “Don’t be passive,” LaChance said to the class. “A lot of great things are coming our way. Remember that nothing is set. The future is not coming; it is here. So do not fear, but welcome it.”

“If there is someplace you have always wanted to go, you can go. You can find a way,” Bernegger said. “Life is for you, for us.”

Kearns spoke of the relationship of failure to success. As a child, he had attempted to learn to play the violin, but finding it a complex and difficult task, he abandoned the effort — an action he has regretted since then.

He said he plans to take up the violin when he enters college. “Failure is not what matters,” he advised fellow graduates. “It’s what you do next.”

McPhail and the high school’s interim principal, Amy Kukenberger, presented graduation awards, and Rosemary Craig, the president of the Board of Education, presented diplomas to the graduates.

Gary Kuch, who had served as the high school’s principal for three and a half of the Class of 2009’s four years, joined McPhail, Kukenberger and Craig on the flag-bedecked dais to congratulate the graduates. Afterward, the class was met with a standing ovation by the audience.

Derouin returned to the microphone to give parting words.

“For a moment, don’t look back. You’re not going that way,” she said. “Take control. Take responsibility for what happens to you. Do not fear change. Nothing in this world is permanent except that. Have integrity. Build a strong and respectable character. Define yourself. Strive to overcome adversity and never forget to celebrate the joys life hands you.” Then, the skies, which had permitted sunlight a few moments before, darkened and rain began to fall. Derouin smiled and instructed the graduates to move the tassels on their caps over, to signify their new status as alumni. “That concludes our 130th commencement exercises, in the nick of time,” McPhail said to the departing crowd.

“I’m really excited, but I have lots of mixed feelings,” Andie Alban said before the ceremony. “I’m going to miss the school and my family and friends. I’ll be coming back to visit them.” Alban plans to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Jimmy Cole attended Clarkson University in Potsdam in a dual enrollment program while attending CCS. “I’m ready to graduate and get out on my own,” he said. He will continue at Clarkson, and major in math. “I love it,” he said. He plans to pursue a career as a mathematical theorist, he said.

“Hallelujah!” graduate Weston Honicker said after the ceremony. “I have been aching to go to college for many years.” In high school, he said, he “made many friends and struggled through many classes. I’m going to Swarthmore College. I think I am going to do a major in history and minor in comparative literature and interpretive theory. Academia is what I think I’d like to pursue, or law of journalism.”

A few moments later, the newly minted alumni of Cooperstown Central School boarded the two district buses waiting for them in front of the museum, and drove them back to the school, for the final time.