Bay high graduation and the speech that almost wasn’t

Bay High School’s class of 2017 walked, danced and rolled across the football field to get their diplomas.

In the stands, parents, friends and relatives whooped and hollered, waved homemade signs, snapped an untold number of photos and showered one another with confetti. They gave a standing ovation for special-needs graduates Brent Anderson and Clarence Kennedy, and another ovation for the newly minted graduates after all had returned to their seats with their diplomas.

Valedictorian Kyle Ott’s speech was something of a revelation.

“About 48 hours ago, this speech was a piece of coal,” he said. “The past week off from school was spent both enjoying my newfound freedom from Bay High School and being incredibly productive.

“I have watched an entire television series documenting the culture of Tudor Britain, read a total of five pages of the ‘Dialogues of Plato’ and fostered a healthy relationship with my bed.”

His speech, he said, wasn’t until very recently “on the agenda.”

But he did manage, under deadline pressure, to turn that piece of coal into a gem of humor and poignancy. The crowd loved it, especially the poem that closed it out.

The graduates rose and walked to the center of the field in a spiral that tightened until they were as close to one another as they’d ever been. Then their mortar boards flew into the air and they disappeared into a river of parents and other well-wishers who streamed from the stands.

This story was originally published May 19, 2017 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Bay high graduation and the speech that almost wasn’t."