JOHN COFFELTEditor

A projected 371 Coffee County Central High School seniors took part in the Class of 2024 Commencement Exercises Friday, May 24 at Carden-Jarrell Field.

Senior Class President Caden Davis said in his address that it feels like only a day has passed since his first experiences in kindergarten and Pre-K.

“It feels like only a day has passed since then, yet in this very moment, we find ourselves standing in the biggest doorway of our lives,” Davis said.

He called the future a wide open world of endless possibilities.

Student Body President Kailee Rossman in her address credited the educators for their role in each graduates’ success.

“I hope that we can all look back and be thankful for their role in our childhood,” Rossman said.

Addressing her fellow classmates, she called for them to prioritize joy as they set out into an uncertain time in their lives.

“One of the things you can do to cultivate joy is to remember how you have been blessed in the past,” Rossman said.

Class of 2024 Salutatorian Riley Phillips said that graduation should live in the memories not as an idea but as an experience.

She focused her address on the word “impact,” and drew on examples of how great people have impacted the world.

“They all did what they did because someone or something impacted them. We are all here because something had an impact on us. As I look out (into the class of 2024) I see 400 different stories — 400 people with the ability to do something great for the world.”

“Maybe,” she continued, “You don’t know your motivation yet, or maybe you haven’t been impacted in a way that has helped you grow into the person you have the power to be.”

“Either way it’s okay, We still have so much time to figure things out, We have so much time to be impacted. And once we find that we can begin to impact the world,” Phillips said.

Valedictorian Madison Pruitt said,”Tonight is a celebration of all we have accomplished, not only academically but in life as well. For some this is a moment you’ve always dreamed of. For others this is a moment you never dreamed you’d make it to. But regardless of your journey, we made it.”

She told her fellow seniors that their diplomas stand for hard work, discipline and the act of showing up.

“When you walk the line tonight understand that you’ve earned this, pushing past any and every curveball that life has thrown your way,” Pruitt said.

“As much as we’d like to think we’re all grown up, we’re not. Our best days are still ahead of us and this chapter of our lives will only continue to fade farther into the rearview,” she said.

Pruitt ended by urging that her class think of themselves as more than a title.

“You are not a student, you are not an athlete, you are not an employee; you are your own person with a value and a purpose…cling tight in the truth that your identity is found not in what you do but in who you are,” she said.

She called for the class not to ask what they want to be but who they want to be.

Principal Paul Parsley called the occasion an end of an important stage in the graduates’ lives.

“You’ve completed a 13 year educational journey,” Parsley said. “Your accomplishment is to be acknowledged and saluted.”

Moreover, he called graduation a new beginning and gives hope for what they can each become.

“Know that there is more for each of you,” Parsley said. “I encourage you to be mindful that you can do more and be more… You will find that getting started is one of the most difficult parts of any worthwhile goal.”

Also during the ceremony, Senior Alyssa Freeze sang the National Anthem, the Center Stage Singers and the Choral Seniors performed “Landslide” and “Climb Higher.” The CCCHS Band performed the graduation marches while the JrROTC color guard presented the flag.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.