By Ryan Topp ’18 Staff Writer

Almost all seniors attended graduation. A select few will take the courageous act in speaking in front of hundreds of people. For Abby Ernst ‘16, Luke Woltanski ‘16, and Hall Monitor and former Varsity Basketball Coach Larry Ash this is the case. They spoke May 26th at graduation for this years seniors.

“This class is leaving a legacy, they’re like no other class. They changed some rules, like opening the gate after school, they would just drive through the grass so something had to be changed,” said Larry Ash

This is a very uncommon class, unlike most others.

“This senior class is interesting. There are a lot of hippy type people that live by their own rules and are free spirited,” said Ash

For Larry Ash, this is only one of the few times he has spoken to big crowds.

“I’ve read this speech over about 500 times, I’m going to try to be myself up there and keep my eyes towards the kids. I haven’t given a lot of speeches and I’m going to try to talk to them like I’m talking to my basketball team.”   said Ash

Ash opened up the speech by saying:

“My momma always told me, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all….”

He then proceeded to dropping the mic and walking away, but he wasn’t done there.

“When life pushes hard at you, push back even harder.” said Ash

“If you don’t take care of business, don’t be stuck being a buckethead,” said Ash

Ash said many inspirational quotes and also said a few things about the special friendships he had with the seniors.

“There is nothing like a good friend that will hold the rope for you,” said Ash

Ernst opened up her speech by saying:

“I’d like to start off by saying happy birthday to Jacob Harris, Caleb Wineger, and Tyler Nobel,” said Ernst

Things got a little more on topic after that.

“Its always a what’s next question, not a whats now. We don’t realize the future is only composed of nows. The only place we will ever live is in the present,” said Ernst

Ernst’s speech consisted of living in the present, and not focusing on the mistakes made in the past.

“At our first senior meeting, instead of reflecting on our accomplishments, the Jostin’s salesman highlighted our reputation for always having a good time. He opened his speech by saying, ‘You guys like to party.’”

For Woltanski, the last speaker he got a little off track at the beginning.

“Back in World War 2, when the whole world was engulfed in one of the most terrible wars in history, Britain especially, they were suffering bombings, attacks, massive amounts of death, and a loss of morals in the world around them. Sounds kinda familiar, doesn’t it?”

Woltanski’s story time was over, and now he got to the cliche part of the speech.

“We went from being misguided misfits, to being the best class there is in Plainwell.”   

Seniors toss their caps in celebration