Love life; do not take it for granted, seniors told
OCEAN CITY — The Class of 2025 walked out onto the field at the oceanfront Carey Stadium under blue skies June 18 to the tunes of “Pomp and Circumstance,” gathering for the final time as high school seniors.
Little shade was to be found as the graduation ceremony began amid temperatures in the mid-80s, but fortunately a timely ocean breeze picked up as the students took their seats.
Dr. Wendy O’Neal delivered the Principal’s Address to the 282 graduates of Ocean City High School.
“Graduation marks a significant rite of passage, a moment that symbolizes your hard work, perseverance and effort. Today, we celebrate all that you have accomplished and eagerly anticipate the incredible opportunities that lie ahead for each of you,” she said.
O’Neal said it was time to celebrate the accomplishments.
“Throughout your journey in high school, you have faced challenges that tested your determination. Some days felt easy, others felt impossible, but in every moment, whether seen or unseen, your effort made the difference,” she said. “As you step into the next chapter of your choice — college, careers, the military, the trades — remember: Life will throw obstacles your way. There will be times when you question yourself, when the path ahead seems uncertain. Ultimately, your effort will shape your future. So go forward with confidence. Take risks and put your best effort into everything you do.”
Choral Director Brian Schkeeper led the student body in singing the alma mater and the senior choir members in “There has to be a Song” by Andrea Ramsey.
Class President Jake Tracy delivered the Welcome Address, filled with references to the shore.
“We currently stand on the edge of the unknown. Our futures stretch before us like the ocean’s horizon: uncharted and vast, yet full of endless possibilities,” he said. “Life is constantly shifting like the sand beneath our feet, and we are about to face more changes than ever before.”
Tracy said feelings of fear and sorrow about moving forward are “proof that we have created something meaningful together.”
“It is hard to let go because we are afraid that our best memories have already passed us by. But holding onto the past can impede our ability to move forward,” he said. “Do not forget that for every time the tide recedes, it is only a matter of time before it returns. The unknown brings fear, yet it also brings possibility.”
Tracy said their lives in Ocean City have been shaped by resilience.
“Be it shoobies infesting our streets, hurricanes reshaping our island or the struggles each of us has faced, hardly anything on this island is constant besides our unwavering ability to adapt,” he said. “We expand our community and welcome newcomers every summer, we rebuild after storms and we have been able to overcome our hardships to be sitting here today. These moments may have felt routine, just another storm or another summer gone by, but they have been silently shaping us.”
Tracy said change and the unknown force the graduates to leave their comfort zones.
“It threatens the things we have worked for and care about. In that discomfort and uncertainty, that is where we find ourselves. As each of these doors of opportunity opens, we are afforded the chance to better and redefine ourselves — to build upon the memories we have made, to demonstrate our progress and to recall who we once were,” he said. “Take chances, live in the moment and always be kind.”
Daphne Brozyna provided the Farewell Address, which focused quite uniquely on death.
“Psychological research states that the human psyche struggles to comprehend its own end. Death as a concept perplexes us, not because we lack imagination, but because our consciousness is the bane of our existence. If we cannot grasp nonbeing, can we even fear it at all?” she said. “Unfortunately, the inability to fully wrap our minds around this idea does not stop us from contemplating it.”
Brozyna said required readings have been rife with concepts of death.
“It’s as if every author got together and said, ‘Let’s make high schoolers overthink mortality for fun,’” she said. “Yet, despite all these texts, the question of why we fear death remains unanswered.”
She said the solution to fearing death is to live life to its fullest.
“Think of the Friday night football games we have piled into over the years. The bleachers rattling under our stomping feet; the scramble for seats at halftime; the way we’d linger afterward, reluctant to let the night end. Those moments weren’t about dissecting life’s big questions — they were about drowning in the excitement,” Brozyna said. “But now the season is over. The field has gone quiet, the stands have emptied, and we are left with the same emptiness.”
She said an almost identical uneasiness stirs when imagining death — “The dread of an ending we feel but cannot outrun.”
“When we chased that Friday night high, we knew, somewhere in the back of our minds, that it would slip away — just like everything does. This is not an answer, just a thread pulling us toward the same mystery — why does the idea of it all coming to an end — whether it be the football season, high school or death — weigh so heavy?”
Ultimately, she said, the fear is not of death but of losing life.
“We are afraid to leave the extraordinary gift we have shared, and frequently taken for granted — the gift of being alive, together,” she said.
Brozyna said everyone gets to decide whether to live life of fear death.
“The power of choice is deeply underestimated. Every decision we make — every moment we choose to be present or let pass us by — shapes whether we will look back wishing we had lived differently,” she said.
“When we think back on high school, it won’t be this one hour ceremony that we remember most. It will be the summation of all that came before it,” Brozyna continued. “There is no shame in striving for our dreams, but the key to happiness is appreciating the small moments while we are still living them.”
She left the Class of 2025 with the message that the commonplace is not something to escape, but something to embrace.
“To live and love life fully is to see the beauty in its quiet constants — not in spite of them, but because of them. Let us not fear death because we wasted life, but because we lived life so fully that its loss feels unimaginable,” Brozyna said.
– STORY by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
