Hats off to East Meadow, Clarke's class of 2010

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
   
That lyric, from the popular 1990s hit “Closing Time,” by Semisonic, symbolized a day when hundreds of students graduated from East Meadow and W.T. Clarke high schools. It was quoted by Louis DeAngelo, who addressed the graduates for the first time last Sunday as superintendent of the East Meadow School District.
   
A questionable forecast turned into a hot, muggy early afternoon with hazy skies and sunshine, as graduates strolled across their campuses as students for the last time.
   
Donning the school’s traditional blue gowns with gold trim and tassels, East Meadow High’s 424 graduates made their way around the track at 11:30 a.m. Wearing bright Rams red on their gowns, Clarke’s 268 graduates marched onto the field at about 1:30 p.m.
   
Sahar Bilal, salutatorian at EMHS, noted that this generation of students, especially, must be up for the challenges ahead. They have witnessed serious events throughout their lives, including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the wars overseas and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
   
“We need to go out in the world and be informed,” Bilal said. “The world is breaking, and it’s our job to go out and heal it.”
   
Amrita Balgobind, EMHS valedictorian, touched on the past, present and future, pointing out that many people have helped shape the graduates. “Throughout the years, our experience with teachers, family and other students made us into the people we are today,” she said.
   
Justin Shanahan, Clarke’s valedictorian and the senior class president, talked about how the graduates were leaving a small, comfortable environment and entering an “insecure world.”    “Trust yourself,” Shanahan said, “because high school has prepared us for what we need to do in the future.”
   
“Now the exploration begins again,” he added.