Academy at Virginia Randolph graduation: 'Every bumblebee that you see flies'

Though they emerged successful from the COVID-19 pandemic, the most difficult challenges facing graduates of The Academy at Virginia Randolph likely are just ahead, Principal Jesse Casey told them during their graduation ceremony at Hermitage High School.

Likening the post-graduation journeys upon which they're about to embark to the personal health journey he began five years ago in an effort to lose weight, he urged them to master the "start."

Casey began cycling five years ago and recalled how difficult it was then to imagine cycling 30 or 50 miles. But now he's completed 80 in one day and is training for a century ride – 100 miles in a day.

(View more photos from the Academy at Virginia Randolph graduation here.)

Even now, he said, "the hardest part of any ride is the first 10 to 12 miles – the start. But once I get past that, I'm where I'm supposed to be, in my zone, in my journey."

He encouraged graduates to face each challenge with resiliency and determination.

"The hardest mountains we ever face will always be the ones we've yet to climb," he said. "Don't worry about how slow or fast or long it may take, just put one foot in front of the other and just start."

Graduates of the school (which serves students for whom traditional school settings were not effective or possible) earned more than $110,000 in college scholarship opportunities, Casey announced, to loud applause.

Fairfield District Supervisor Frank Thornton told graduates to aim high – and encouraged them to embody the spirit of a bumblebee.

"The bumblebee, as you know, should not be able to fly, because anatomically, his body is too large," Thornton said. "But no one ever told the bumblebee that.

"Don't ever worry about what somebody tells you. . . aim high. Because every bumblebee that you see flies."

Senior class representative Kishawn Roberts told his classmates that regardless of whether they came to the school by choice or not, they had made the most of it.

"Whatever your story is, you triumphed, because look at where you are right now," he said. "Get out there, set goals for yourself, get out of your comfort zone, and don't be afraid to fail. If you aren't failing, you're not growing."

Casey regularly urges students at the school to follow the goal of achieving one of the "Three Es" after graduation – being enrolled (in higher education), enlisted (in the military) or employed.

No matter which path they choose, Casey said, the change to live a life based upon service to others is possible.

"If you live a life of service and make the lives of others around you better, then I feel strongly you will have a fulfilled, successful life," Casey said.