PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Accept adventures.

 

That's Mayor Linda Tyer's advice to Taconic High School's graduating class. The school held its commencement Sunday, the last one in the current Taconic High School gymnasium.

 

There, the mayor told the graduates that she is living proof that accepting adventure will lead to a better life. 

 

"I graduated from high school a long, long time ago. Since then I've made mistakes that I regret like walking passed an adventure because I let uncertainty by my guide and because I held on too tightly to my plan. Now I am much better at recognizing adventure and I am much braver at chasing it down," Tyer said.

 

"How do I know this? Because it is completely improbable that I am here today, addressing you as your mayor. I am proof that accepting adventures will improve your life beyond your wildest imagination."

 

The mayor recapped the early section of The Hobbit, when Bilbo Baggins closes the door on Gandalf, who was looking for an adventure. But, ultimately Baggins gave in and went on a quest, becoming wiser and more confident along the way.

 

"As you leave your hobbit hole, the safe confines of the beloved Taconic High School, when you step outside of your parents warm embrace, this is what I know for sure - there are Gandalfs everywhere and you will be invited to 101 adventures. Accept the invitation," Tyer said.

 

"Be brave. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is being afraid and going forward anyway."

 

Uncertainty faces the students, now as many head off to college, work or armed services. But Valedictorian Ranjana Lingutla knows that every one will do great things because Taconic High School has taught them many lessons, and not just in the classrooms but also beyond.

 

"Our real lessons came from one another and experiences outside of the classroom walls. For starters, we've learned to adapt to change and face life as it comes by ultimately expecting the unexpected," Lingutla said.

 

She said each student has "developed responsibility and learned to take charge of our own actions." She said the students will be faced with challenges, but that those challenges are just pieces to a bigger puzzle.

 

"As we look to the future remember that life is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. You don't know what the big picture is going to look like and sometimes your not even sure if you have all the pieces," Lingutla said.

 

"That's the true beauty of life. You get to try out all of the pieces until you find just the right one that fits. Like a puzzle, life doesn't just happen. It is a journey. Every day is new day to try out new pieces and to shape your destiny. Even on your low days, when the pieces won't fit, and you feel like your puzzle isn't coming together, never forget the bigger picture and that those pieces may be falling into place."

 

But achieving that bigger picture is something Salutatorian Elijah Thomas Cunningham says one can't do alone. He encouraged his classmates, all with different talents and expertise, to help each other achieve their dreams. 

 

"No one does anything on their own, you need to remember that. This is a day when we are told to go after our dreams, to change the world. And we absolutely should but you have to realize that you can't make your dreams come true on your own. You don't have all the skills you need to accomplish your dreams," Cunningham said. "But someone does."

 

He questioned a quote that says if you don't make your own dream then someone will hire you to make theirs. But, Cunningham says why can't people do both? Cunningham told his classmates to do what they love, but also help others do what they love.

 

Love was a central theme of Superintendent Jason McCandless' address. Weaving from the pursuit candidates are currently having in the presidential primaries trying to show they are better than the other candidate to conversations held right here in Berkshire County, McCandless told the students not to seek being better than others but to seek love.

 

"There seems to be an urgency and an insistence that we could have done better than the person next to us. We could have been better. We could have made better decisions than those around us. We have a need to be righter, a need to be richer, a need to be brighter, a need to be better educated, a need to have a bigger house or nicer car, a more attractive spouse, smarter children, a better trained dog, whiter teeth, thicker hair, cleaner shoes, whatever," McCandless said. 

 

"We ask ourselves when does the pursuit of better end? And even more importantly than when does it end is when it does end, where did it wind up getting you? I had more people at my funeral than you. I had more people crying at my funeral, better flower arrangements, warmer condolences, more donations? I had a more expensive casket, a gravesite with a view?"

 

The superintendent called it the "better than effect" in which human beings all believe they are better than some one else. 

 

"This effect explains why us human being tend to think that us as individuals are a little bit smarter, a little bit better, a bit more capable than the average person," McCandless said.

 

"Our tendency to over estimate ourselves is very real. Our tend to overestimate our own intelligence, our own talents, the value of our own opinions is part of who each of us are as human beings. In the end it seems that the worst judgment one can be put upon us in our society is that we are just average. We all want to be better than that."

 

He told the students that the only person they need to be better than, is the person they were the day before. 

 

And with that, the 167 in the graduating class walked across the stage set up in the gym to receive their diploma from Tyer, School Committee members Joshua Cutler and Pamela Farron, and class advisors Jennifer Foley and Stephen Smith. The hour-long ceremony also included a performance of the song Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson by the honors chorus, Caroline Fairweather sang the Star Spangled Banner, and Principal John Vosburgh and School Committee Chairwoman Katherine Yon gave the students words of encouragement.

 

"Never forget where you came from," Vosburgh said, after reflecting on the numerous activities the graduates had participated in during their time in high school. "Taconic will always be your school and you guys will always be Braves."