As the May 23 graduation ceremony approaches, Senior Class officers have started organizing the various aspects of this much-anticipated event. From tryouts for speeches, class song and the national anthem last Friday to figuring out how many tickets each senior needs, the officers have a lot on their hands, according to Senior Class Secretary Faith Collins.

“[The officers] plan every little detail,” Collins said. “From the announcements given out, to even the flowers on the stage, it takes a lot of planning and budgeting to plan the entire graduation.”

Collins also pointed to a shortage of seniors willing to try out at first for the various roles at graduation.

“We didn’t get enough people to try out at first, which was not super-surprising with all of the other stress going on,” she said. “So we extended the deadline a week and really encouraged people to sign up, so now we have enough people trying out for each position.”

One of those seniors is Zach Zammas, who submitted a speech.

“I wanted to give a speech as sort of a send off for my fellow seniors,” he said. “I wrote about the people who have grown with me all these years because I figured that most speeches at graduation will be about looking forward and how we can conquer the world, so instead I decided to just look back and reminisce.”

Zammas said he is hopeful his speech will be chosen.

“I think I have a chance, considering not only the amount of time I spent writing the speech, but also that it will stand out from the cliché end of 80s movie ‘let’s go change the world’ type of speech,” he said. “But I know that even if I don’t, the other candidates will not let us down.”

In addition to the several speeches given by seniors, the class song is also played by students who audition for it. Zammas said he believes his classmates will give a performance to remember.

“I know there are several talented musicians in my grade that play quite the ensemble of instruments,” he said. “So I’m definitely looking forward to a live performance of “We are Young” by my fellow classmates.”

With these different tasks at hand, the senior class has a busy schedule for the next two months. However, Collins said the class officers feel confident in their preparations thus far.

“Honestly I think we are prepared pretty far in advance for graduation and I’m hoping everything continues to go smoothly,” she said.

Conversely, Zammas said he believes that the senior class will never truly be ready.

“We’re not very prepared,” he said. “It seems odd that the one guaranteed important event of our senior year is so far yet so close. And with all the mixed feelings, it’s understandable that no matter how my class feels as a whole, individually we each have our own conflict of wanting to enter the world but not wanting to leave behind home, which can bring about some uncertainty, especially regarding graduation.”

By Jolie Russo