Those efforts have now paid off.

Eklum recognized her fellow students during Jamestown High School’s graduation ceremony Friday at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater. She said the soon-to-be graduates were “strong like a rock,” noting that rocks hold a special meaning for her.

“Since I was small, when I would find a special pebble, whether at the park, beach, vacation, or on a walk, my mother would let me bring it home and put it in a special jar,” Eklum said in her speech. “This jar sits on a window sill in my dining room. This jar is what I hold in front of you tonight and was right there glistening in the window during my remote days studying.

“These rocks are from special places and they remind me of important journeys and people in my life.”

Cecelia Eklum, Jamestown High School valedictorian, is pictured during Friday’s graduation ceremony.

Eklum gave a brief history of rocks, and made comparisons to students about to graduate high school.

“These components are held together by chemical bonds, which make rocks strong. So believe me, this class is like a rock,” Eklum said. “While our futures lie before us waiting to unfold, we have come to our first true milestone of our adult lives. We are ready to move on and face the world beyond high school, and enjoy the responsibility and freedom that come with it.”

Eklum encouraged the Class of 2022 to push through obstacles that might come their way in the future.

“Remember, a rock under pressure produces what? A diamond,” she said. “Good judgment comes from experience and experience will encounter many mistakes. In order to reach the mountain top, there will be challenges. What will make you successful is how you overcome, learn from, and push through those obstacles, and grow to follow your passions and fulfill your dreams.”

Salutatorian Siena DeAngelo encouraged students to start living in the moment. She reflected on all the tests she took while in school, always building to the next task.

Pictured is Siena DeAngelo, salutatorian for the Class of 2022.

“I kept telling myself I just have to get through this test, through this relationship, through this heartbreak, through COVID, through this week, this year,” DeAngelo said. “After that I can relax. After that I can have fun.”

She added, “When are we going to stop living for the next thing and start living for the now?”

DeAngelo referenced an anonymous poem in which the author seeks to finish high school and college, marry and have children, and then eventually retire. At the end, the author notes they were too busy moving from one thing to another that they forgot to live.

“We are not dying. We are living,” DeAngelo said. “We don’t have to wait for the whens and the afters — it’s time we start to live for the nows.”

Katie Castro on Friday served as the school’s commencement speaker. She is the founder and leads Ally Co. in Jamestown. She also has been a speaker and coach with Women Speakers Collective in Los Angeles and worked as a strategic lead at Boundless Communications in Toronto.