New Hyde Park Memorial graduates 278

Salutatorian Thomas Campbell has some advice for his fellow 278 New Hyde Park Memorial High School graduates, wait until the pizza rolls cool of before you eat them.

“Those things come out like lava and there is nothing worse than burning yourself on the first bite and ruining the entire experience before it begins,” said Campbell who admitted being more nervous than he expected giving his speech Sunday. “It’s tempting just to jump right in but patience, will and discipline will help you.”

Though Campbell was not talking literally, he told his fellow graduates to take a step back and look at all the options and choices ahead of them before jumping head first.

Valedictorian Amanda Lesar gave some other advice, to follow the yellow brick road to your destiny and to enjoy the journey. She said when entering high school they were munchkins.

“We’re told we can make it out of this world as long as we make it to graduation,” she said. “Our Emerald City.”

She told her classmates that they cannot run from the future and decisions that they will undoubtedly have to make.

“And so we traveled through high school and we gained brains and hearts and courage. We melt our witches and confront our demons and we win,” said Lesar. “But when we confront the wizard we become confused, when we peak behind the curtain we find the wizard is just a man.”

She said the Emerald City is not what they built it up to be. They spent so long imagining what it was that they built it up to be the best thing ever.

According to Lesar, leaving behind high school is leaving behind the bad and the good.

“When we are in college and we think about what it was like on that yellow brick road, we can click our heels together and instead of coming back to Kansas we can come back to New Hyde Park,” she said. “The place where we grew up.”