Flapping wings send Bluejays ‘onto (their) next’

SKYE POURNAZARI/THE FORUM
Mortarboards fly on Sunday in Ravenwood as the Northeast Nodaway Class of 2024 says goodbye to school.

RAVENWOOD, Mo. — The Northeast Nodaway Class of 2024 turned their tassels on Sunday in the company of friends, family and community as well as an errant (not Bluejay) bird flapping its wings during the event.

The senior class asked Engilsh teacher Emily Bonifas to speak during the ceremony. Now in her final year teaching at the school, Bonifas, who plans to teach in Kansas City next year, talked about the class who was in seventh grade when she began teaching in Ravenwood.

“These seniors taught me a lot of things,” she said, continuing to list several things, including the fact that some thoughts should remain “inside thoughts,” and that even for $10, a person should probably not eat clay.

She reminisced about the class as it made its way through the grades and moved to the next.

“Now go onto your next,” she told them.

Tearing up slightly during her speech, Northeast Nodaway Class of 2024 Valedictorian Jillian Boswell thanked numerous people, her teachers, her classmates and her parents. But her voice broke ever so slighting when she offered the utmost thanks to her twin brother Jack for being there from the very beginning.

“I know you could not have have done it without me,” she began to joke. “But I know for a fact that I could not have done it without.”

Salutatorian Delanny Hopper told her that one of her teachers told her she was resilient and that every day since then, she has worked to prove that true.

“Thank you for believing in me,” she said.

She thanked family and friends, coaches and teachers for their support.

“To my classmates … as we turn the page to the next chapter of our lives, I’m glad that I got to spend all this time, at this school with you,” she said.