Capito tells PBHS grads to ‘care for each other’

PHILIPPI — One hundred and seventeen students from Philip Barbour High School celebrated their graduation and the completion of one chapter of their lives Friday evening during the school’s 55th commencement.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., keynote speaker, told students that in West Virginia, people are all part of “one big, small town.”

“We care for one another, we know each other’s families, we know each other’s brothers and sisters,” she said. “I encourage you to care for one another, stay interested in your friends, your family, in your life here in Barbour County — keep those life lessons.”

Capito encouraged graduates of PBHS to be present, enjoy all of the moments in life and to cherish relationships and allow themselves to make changes along their path to finding themselves.

“It’s important to take the time to enjoy your surroundings — to listen and to be present,” Capito said. “Sometimes life doesn’t always play out exactly the way that you want, and it’s more likely, in fact, that you might go one direction and you might do a zig and a zag into another direction. So, you’ll have a lot of experiences to challenge your world view and you’ll find that situation that makes you rethink some of your plans and that’s OK, too.”

Maddi Carpenter, senior class president, speaks to the 2018 class at the Philip Barbour High School commencement ceremonies Friday at the school gymnasium.

In honor of the students who lost their lives in a school shooting earlier on Friday, Capito asked all PBHS graduates and everyone in attendance to take part in a moment of silence.

“I would like to ask that we take about 20 seconds to realize that there is a high school in America tonight that is in a very sad state of affairs,” she said. “Santa Fa High School, just outside of Houston, Texas — if we could take 20 seconds to say a prayer for the parents, staff and students of that school, I think it would be a good idea.”

Maddi Carpenter, senior class president, said over the course of their four years at PBHS, she believes her class had much to learn, including that they could count on each other.

“As cliche as it sounds, four years flew by in the blink of an eye. It seems like yesterday we were freshmen trying to find right exactly where we fit in, and now we’re seniors trying to figure out how in the world four years flew by so fast,” she said. “Yeah, we did have a lot to learn about this school and about each other. … We ended up realizing that we’d grow up together, always having each other’s backs.”

She went on to encourage her classmates to think about the memories they created over the years and how they will “measure” their time in high school.

Members of the 2018 class take part in graduation activities.

“As I personally reflect on the past four years, I often ask myself how I’ll measure it. As freshmen we measured it in class periods. After all, it was one of our easiest years and we just wanted to move away from being ‘freshmeat.’ Soon, as we grew from sophomore to juniors, we started wishing it away by semesters, and then years,” Carpenter said. “And now, here we are torn between excitement and sadness. I’ll measure high school based on the friendships I’ve created.”

Cadie Beth McNaboe, student body president and graduate of the 2018 class, stressed the importance of community at PBHS in her farewell address.

“Community, as defined by Webster’s dictionary — community is a body of persons having a common history or common social and economic interest. What Webster’s dictionary doesn’t mention is the indestructible bond that a community has,” she said. “The Colt family stretches far before my lifetime, and even my parents’ lifetime.”

McNaboe went on to mention noteworthy achievements made by graduates of PBHS while also encouraging her classmates to “blaze their own trail” but also accept advice from those who have experience.

“As we prepare to leave what has been our second home for the last four years, we have been given heaps of advice. It seems everyone has something to say, something to divulge,” she said. “While it is always important to blaze your own trail, we can take advice from those who have come before, those to have walked the path of life much longer than us.”