PRAIRIE HOME, Mo. - "Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours."
Those were the age-old words Dr. Steven Barnes, superintendent, chose to end his welcome address with at the 2016 graduation for Prairie Home High School on Sunday afternoon.
The emphasis on choices is not an uncommon topic this time of year where there are graduations going on at seemingly every turn, yet Barnes' words feel unique because of the small size Prairie Home's graduating class.
Though Prairie Home had just eight seniors donning the caps and gowns this year, you wouldn't know it if all you saw was the academic credentials. With six National Honor Society members and multiple winners of both the Sen. Kurt Schaefer Award of Recognition and Achievement and President's Award for Educational Excellence, the eight graduates certainly packed a lot of outstanding work into their four years at Prairie Home High School.
Both speakers at the ceremony had known the Class of 2016 for the last 13 years. First, Karma Haller, a secretary at Prairie Home, gave a speech in which she gave suggestions to the graduates. The first of those suggestions were to have good communication and a good attitude.
"Life is so much easier if the line of communication is open," she said. "It's your attitude and not your aptitude that will determine your altitude."
Like Barnes, Haller also spoke of the significance of making good choices. She also talked the importance of being able to bloom where one is planted before ending her speech with a quote from the Tim McGraw song "Humble and Kind."
Following Haller was Jessi Cater, a second-grade teacher at Prairie Home whose first class at the school was this year's graduates. Cater spent much of her speech telling personalized anecdotes about all eight students, most of which involved the experiences she shared with them in elementary school.
The latter half of the ceremony involved counselor Ashlei Kemp awarding scholarships to the college-bound seniors. Makayla Zey and Danielle Paulson were each awarded the Bruner Family Scholarship. Zey was the Class of 2016 valedictorian, while Paulson was named salutatorian.
Zey also won the Lions Club Scholarship, as did Allyson Small. Paulson, meanwhile, was also awarded the CTA Scholarship as well the Boonville Rotary Club Scholarship, which Josie Flood also won.
Kaitlin Kendrick was also awarded a pair of scholarships, the Robert Lacy Scholarship as well as the FCCLA Red Cross Scholarship.
The ceremony concluded with the Class of 2016 video and the graduates thanking their parents.