Graduates reminded to remember their roots

Nervous, but ready to move on.

Those were the thoughts going through Carter Cieslewicz’s mind as he stood in line to enter the Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School gymnasium for the last time as a high school student.

He was one of 83 seniors to graduate May 22 in front of family, friends, community members and Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District staff.

“It’ll probably sink in when I’m walking across the stage with my diploma,” Cieslewicz said. “When I came in as a freshman, it was new. I was nervous, because I didn’t know what to expect. Sophomore year, it got a little easier, because I was used to it. Junior year flew by really quick, and no one told me that.

“Senior year was the quickest, probably, because you’re just nervous about the end of the year. It just sneaks up on you.”

Cieslewicz is heading to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to study wildlife management and ecology, which he said turned out to be an easy decision.

“I’ve always been interested in the outdoors, and I wanted to have a future in it,” he said. “My parents said, ‘You better go to Point then, that’s what they specialize in.’ I think I’m ready, but I won’t really feel that. It’s kind of like coming in as a freshman here again.”

One of Cieslewicz’s classmates, Rory Salvesen, who is headed to the University of Minnesota on a softball scholarship, addressed the seniors during the ceremony.

“We’ve all been pushed out of our comfort zones, forced to face unexpected challenges and tasked with figuring things out,” she said. “These uncomfortable moments – the ones where we felt the most out of our element – are the ones that actually changed us.”

Salvesen called the last 13 years of school the best and worst of times.

“Looking back, we covered an incredible amount of ground,” she said. “I remember elementary school, a time when our biggest life crisis was whether we’d get the best basketball at recess. Back then, your social status was peak celebrity if you had a fidget spinner.”

Salvesen recalled dealing with COVID-19 in middle school.

“We spent our days staring at screens, battling bad Wi-Fi and realizing ‘You’re on mute’ had officially become the catch phrase of our education,” she said. “We survived the teachers who said, ‘This will only take 10 minutes’ and it definitely took longer than an hour.”

On the other hand, those 13 years are filled with memories, according to Salvesen.

“Some we’ll hold onto forever and some we’d probably rather forget,” she said. “Yes, I’m sure there are things I wish we could change. There are moments and decisions we made that are probably not our finest hours. If you’re anything like me, you definitely chose to learn almost everything the hard way.

“We are not defined by one mistake, one bad grade or one bad day. What matters is that we show up, that we try, that we keep going, especially when it’s uncomfortable and when times get hard. Moving forward, life isn’t perfect, but everything happens for a reason. Let’s keep our heads up on the good days and the bad ones.”

The district invites a Wittenberg-Birnamwood alumnus to be the ceremony’s guest speaker. This year, it was Jessica Almazar from the class of 1995.

After earning degrees in journalism and history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she attended law school and worked as an attorney, as a moderator with the state Department of Workforce Development, and as an instructor and board member at the Woodson YMCA in Wausau.

Almazar encouraged the seniors not to forget where they came from.

“Whether you realize it, being from Wittenberg-Birnamwood is part of your roots now,” she said. “The experiences that you had here are going to carry with you long after tonight. These experiences are going to continue to shape how you grow.”

Life gets bigger after graduation, Almazar said.

“That’s why staying connected matters,” she said. “Stay connected to each other. Go to your class reunions, come back for homecoming, come back for the corn roast. Keep up with the people sitting with you today, because someday, those relationships will mean more to you than you probably realize right now.

“Stay connected to this place. Communities like this shape you in ways that you don’t fully appreciate until later. Your teachers, your family, your coaches, your neighbors, your friends invested in you long before today. That doesn’t stop after you’ve graduated.”

Almazar said it’s easy to believe that success comes from having a perfect plan.

“The truth is most people – including myself – are figuring it out as we go along,” she said. “There’s a lot of life between where you are right now and where you hope to end up. At some point, everybody’s going to hit a wall where you’re wondering if you’re actually going to make it. Those things happen to everybody. What matters is persistence, not perfection.

“You’re going to meet new people, move to new places and experience things that challenge you. It’s going to change you in ways that you can’t fully imagine now. Even as your world gets bigger, the things that shape you here will stay: your family, your values, your teammates, your teachers, your co-workers, your coaches, your friends. You already have people in your corner: people who know you, people who believe in you, people who want nothing but the best for you.

“As you leave here today, take chances and go experience new things, but don’t forget your roots and each other. No matter where life takes you, you’ll always be part of the Wittenberg-Birnamwood community.”