We don’t always possess the awareness that any particular time we walk through a door it may be for the last time. But Old Rochester Regional seniors for a second year have been treated to that insight as they returned one final time to their respective elementary schools to enter the front doors one last time as a student, wander the school’s halls and the hallways of their memory, and exit as tomorrow’s graduates.
It was the Friday before graduation, June 1, and inside Sippican School, Rochester Memorial, Old Hammondtown, and Center School, it was like any other regular day near the end of the school year, except this day everyone was expecting the arrival of a few VIPs.
“May I have your attention please! We’ve just been told that the busses have left and the seniors are on their way,” announced RMS Principal Derek Medeiros over the intercom.
With only minutes to prepare, students began lining the walls of the corridors clutching congratulatory signs and noisemakers to wish the big kids well during their ‘senior stroll’ through their hometown school. After all, it took a million steps to get this far in their journey; it seems fitting to cheer them on as their feet take those emotional final ones.
“I used to think this place was so big,” said one smiling ORR senior as the Mattapoisett students visited both Center School and Old Hammondtown School. The annual Senior Walk event gives the graduating seniors a chance to say a final goodbye to favorite teachers and reminisce about “the good old days.”
Passing through the Center School halls past well-wishing posters, one senior was overcome and near tears as she said to her friend, “Oh, this is so cute!”
Associate Principal Kevin Tavares was also near tears as he told The Wanderer, “This is very emotional for me…. This was my last class when I was still in the classrooms.” He told the seniors, “From all the staff at Center School, we are so proud and hope you come back no matter where your adventures may take you in life.”
Over at Old Hammondtown School, Principal Rose Bowman said, “This is such an exciting time for all of us.” The seniors arrived to a roaring chorus of excited fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders lining the halls, the backdrop to their final farewell.
Playing on the video screen in the foyer was a video of the seniors when they were sixth-grade students at OHS.
“Look at how small we were,” one senior cried. Others giggled at the outfits they wore to school just five to six years prior and, of course, their hairstyles.
By Marilou Newell and Jean Perry
