Members of the Class of 2025 endured a lot in their time at Watertown High School, including shifting buildings, the Pandemic, and of course academic challenges. They showed resilience, toughness, and a strong spirit on the way to collecting their degrees on Friday evening at Victory Field.
Even the graduation ceremony had its own uncertainty and challenges. With rain a serious possibility, the John A. Ryan Arena was set up to serve as the backup venue, and Principal Joel Giacobozzi thanked all the amateur meteorologists for their advice and forecasts. The only thing falling from the sky on Friday was graduation caps when the seniors tossed them into the air at the end of the ceremony.
The Class of 2025 had 190 graduates, which Superintendent Dede Galdston said was the largest in her eight years in Watertown.
Class Valedictorian Nairi Davidian said one thing she learned in her time at the high school was that sometimes people will be critical or negative, and that not everyone will like you. This sometimes leads to students feeling like they have to prove others they are wrong.
“We will likely feel the urge to fit in, but I encourage you to question this desire. As professor and author Brene Brown wisely pointed out, fitting in is not the same thing as belonging. When we try to fit in, we sometimes end up killing the best parts of ourselves,” Davidian said. “By the time we realize this, it is too late to save them, and we end up a completely different person. We all deserve better. We all deserve to be accepted without sacrificing what makes us who we are. We all deserve to forge our own paths instead of walking the ones pre-paved for us. We all deserve to just be when we belong, we do not have to reconstruct ourselves so that we fit into a box. We are free to stay as we are.”
She also encouraged her fellow graduates to think of others.
“The world is in an interesting place, to say the least. Sometimes it seems like we are powerless to change anything, but changes change, whether on an international or local level. So when we see injustice occurring, let’s seize the opportunity to make improvements to our community, however small they may seem, because the small differences add up,” Davidian said. “For those of us who have experienced significant hardship, we remember how much it meant for us to have someone support us, even if that just meant being present and listening to us. Even if we cannot relate to what someone is going through, we can still be there for them. Empathy is a muscle. In order to strengthen it, you have to train it. “
Salutatorian Jeylani Thiam recalled the challenging classes, especially calculus, and all the hard work he put in at WHS. He noted that the seniors have faces hardships during their career.
“More than just learning facts and formulas, the hardships we have endured for the past four years have taught us how to be hard, working, resilient and honest people. We have challenged ourselves in the classroom. We have given our all in athletics. We have endured COVID, we have endured the Moxley campus, and we have pushed through each and every obstacle with grit,” Thiam said. “So if there’s one lesson I hope everyone walks away from high school with it’s this: what matters most isn’t just what we learned, it’s the mindset we built, the ability to work hard, day in and day out, and still come out smiling every single time. That’s something no test could ever measure.
“As we head into college, the workforce, the military, wherever life takes us, I want you to remember that you’ve already proven that you can do hard things. So be hard working. Do things for the sake of them. Being hard. Be brave enough to take risks. Live Your Way, live your life in such a way that you will have no regrets, and most importantly, be bold enough to be great at every single thing you choose to do, because that is what you are. Great, as Nelson Mandela once said, ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’ I implore you all to finish it.”
Senior Class President Daniel MacDonald shared his experience being a high school wrestler. Coming into his final season, he had no varsity wins. He asked the audience how many wins they thought he got his senior year. “One.”
“I had 21 losses my senior year and one varsity win. I got my behind handed to me almost each time I stepped onto the mat. And it wasn’t always fun. But now I want you to guess how many practices I missed over my junior and senior years, zero, my two iron person awards from this year and last year proven,” he said.
MacDonald went on to say: “Embrace the struggle, embrace the sweat, hard work and time put into things. … Sometimes you can work really hard at something and still fail. That’s all right,” he said. Celebrate the fact that you worked hard. Success isn’t always easy, and it isn’t always going to happen. You will try hard at something and it will fail at some point in your life. It is going to happen. Embrace that. Use this energy for your next invention. Prove to everyone that even if you failed once, you’ll succeed on the second time.”
Giacobozzi noted that while the students spent the last couple years of their time at WHS attending classes in “a field full of trailers,” they have shown their resilience. He added some words of advice.
“My advice is just a collection of my mistakes that have become my best teachers, and yours will be, too. But one thing I encourage of you is to go out and try new things, lots of things. Try things you know you’ll fail at, make music, make art, walk around the city and get lost, read a book with an ugly cover. You know what they say about that?” he said. “Learn to weld, write for the sake of writing, debate with others and then share a meal. Try following the road signs instead of your GPS. Challenge the status quo. Pay for the guy behind you. Talk to your high school crush. You won’t see them for a while anyway, so just do it. Eat a vegetable. Shut off your phone. … For the love of God. Shut off your phone. And listen. Stop saying you can’t. You’re 18 years old. Yes, you can!”
Galdston said the 2025 WHS seniors were “footloose and fancy free” with their campus stretching from Moxley Field on Westminster Avenue to Saltonstall Park and Watertown Boys & Girls Club on Whites Avenue. She called them “resilient, adaptable, and impressively self-reliant.”
“While this class didn’t get to graduate from the final Watertown High School building, you’ve already laid the foundation of something more important, a legacy of courage, creativity and community spirit. It doesn’t matter which building you attended high school in, what truly matters is the community you created,” Galdston said. “Over these past four years, you’ve shown us all that learning isn’t defined by the walls around you, but by the people beside you and the purpose within you as you head out into the world, whether it’s college, a career, or something still unfolding, remember that the most powerful paths are rarely the straight ones. Stay open, stay curious, and keep making your path.”
During the ceremony, graduating seniors provided two musical interludes. Diana Liashchenko played Frederic Chopin’s Waltz, Op. 64 No. 2 in C# Minor on the piano, and Avery MacDonald and Sylvia Sakata sang Stevie Nick’s song “Landslide.”
Members of the Class of 2025 also honored teachers from the Watertown elementary and middle schools who made a difference in their education and life. The honorees were Watertown Middle School teacher Zachary Allen, Hosmer Elementary School’s Eileen Doherty, Cunniff Elementary School’s Julie Erwin, and Lowell Elementary School’s Emily Walsh.