COOPERSTOWN _ "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.
Derouin was one of four senior speakers at the ceremony, held on the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum on Otsego Lake.
She, Quinn Bernegger, Peter Kearns and Joelle LaChance 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 said 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 at the rear of the museum and along a tree-lined path. 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 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' adviser, Thomas Good, was assisting at the school's concession stand at Doubleday Field for the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Classic game.
She noted that 92 percent of the school's 2009 graduates will attend college, 7 percent will go into business directly after graduation, and one is enlisting in the armed services.
More than $212,700 in scholarships were awarded to this year's CCS graduates, McPhail said. "We are indeed fortunate."
Most of the speaking, however, was done by the four designated seniors.
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 the class of 2009 until this year, joined McPhail, Kukenberger and Craig on the flag-bedecked dais to congratulate the graduates.
As the ceremony concluded, the skies darkened, and rain began to fall.
"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, majoring in math.
"I love it," he said, and plans to pursue a career as a mathematical theorist.
"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," he continued.
A few moments later, the newly minted alumni of Cooperstown Central School boarded two district buses in front of the museum, heading back to the school for the final time.
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