‘I will always bleed red and black.’ Palmetto High Class of 2020 celebrates graduation

Between kindergarten and their graduation ceremony on Thursday morning, the seniors at Palmetto High School worked for more than a decade to earn their diplomas.

“The time spent with people around us is the time that shaped us,” said Mikinzi Jackson, a commencement speaker at the ceremony.

Standing near the pitcher’s mound at LECOM Park, the Class of 2020 behind her, Jackson reflected on all the people who made Thursday’s achievement possible.

“First, I want to say thank you to our parents and guardians,” Jackson said. “You are the reason we get to be here. You believed in us enough to get us through the last 12 years.”

“Next, our staff, faculty and administration,” she continued. “You guys taught us through the good and bad times, so thank you. Without these people, the time spent at Palmetto the last four years would not have been the same.”

Students at Palmetto High School dealt with campus flooding and a roller coaster of emotions during the football season. In the final months of their senior year, the graduates faced COVID-19, school closures and daily uncertainty.

But in the end, Jackson said, every challenge made them stronger.

“We have shared tears and laughs and screams and everything in between,” she said.

On its face, graduation was a chance to celebrate the hard work that led to their high school diplomas, said Abbygale Owen, a 2020 graduate and commencement speaker.

“Also known as a piece of paper, the checkered flag waving across the finish line or the pit stop on a much longer race,” she said.

But graduation was about far more than a diploma, she continued. It signified the start of new challenges and all the victories to come. Life would soon test their character, ambition and beliefs.

“I don’t believe our worth is determined by explicit numbers,” Owen said. “Not our GPAs or our salaries, but rather our contributions to a culture that will impact generations.”

During his own speech on Thursday morning, Xavier Williams said the graduates would leave LECOM Park with cherished memories, achievements and new ambitions.

Their high school — home of the Palmetto Tigers — was a community. And showing their Tiger pride was about more than wearing a school shirt, he said. It was about welcoming and supporting all people, sharing in the struggles and victories of everyone in the Palmetto community.

“I will always bleed red and black, and I will forever be a Palmetto Tiger,” Williams said.