‘It’s been a different journey for everyone.’ Lakewood Ranch High Class of 2021 graduates

From that moment you are a socially awkward 13 or 14-year-old entering the big halls of high school as a freshman, to the moment you attend your own graduation ceremony, it is a time of growing up.

Yes, the education you receive is important, but for the students of Lakewood Ranch High School, who graduated Thursday morning at LECOM Park in Bradenton, it’s the life skills you develop in those four crucial years that sets your future in motion.

And that path is different for every graduate.

For Dane Spiekerna, it’s his desire to make a living while seeing the country. His chosen path is to get behind the wheel of a big rig and travel the roads of America. His four years of high school was a time of transition from being a child to taking his first step into the real world of adulthood.

“It was very confusing at first and I think that’s how everyone is when you are first coming in,” Spiekerna said. “It’s more of a growing up experience. I think high school is all about how you mature and how you come around to your different experience. Everyone has a different path.”

Jace Grayson’s path is leading toward a career in the Air Force and he knew it very early on when he joined the school’s JROTC program as a freshman. Grayson said his time in JROTC shaped not only his future, but who he is now as a young man.

“It’s been a great experience,” Grayson said. “It’s really transitioned me from my freshman year all the way to my senior year. I’ve learned so much as a person. I’ve learned so much more about the world, a lot more about having a values system. Honestly, it’s one of the best things I’ve done in my life and one of the things I’m most proud of.”

Grayson said it’s been amazing to see how others in the program also have grown up around him and recommends the program to incoming freshmen to help them break through barriers that may otherwise hold them back from being more successful.

“As a freshman I was lot more worried about trying something new,” Grayson said. “Even like meeting new people or talking to new people. Over the years, I slowly learned how to develop that and now I can get in front of anybody and talk and lead groups. It’s been a really great experience to help build those skills and character I can apply in everyday life.”

For anyone who remembers those crucial growing up years in high school, it can be challenging above and beyond worrying about grades. Grayson said the important thing to remember for next year’s freshman class is to never give up.

“I would say stick to it and just keep going,” Grayson said. “I know there will be times when it will be hard and you won’t want to do it, but that’s the time when you need to keep going. You’re going to face a lot of challenges and setbacks, but you just have to keep going through them.”

Grayson opted not to pursue scholarship opportunities and has already enlisted in the Air Force and will ship out for basic training soon.

For Alise Mirikitani and Shea Murphy, it’s the pursuit of higher education that drives their future beyond their high school years. While they say goodbye to their high school years, there are more years in a classroom to endure. Both reflected on their individual journeys that shaped their decisions.

“Through high school, there are definitely some growing pains and there are things you go through that are sometimes definitely tough,” Mirikitani said. “But it works out for the better. You are a better person when you come out of it, to overcome those growing pains and the struggles you go through.”

There is a lot that happens in between those freshman and senior years. But even so, Murphy said her high school years went by very fast.

“It goes fast, Murphy said. “Which is such a thing to say because it seems slow when you are going through it. It’s definitely been a journey. I am two different people from when I started as a freshman, but honestly, the club journalism really helped me to stay consistent throughout the years.”

Both college-bound students said the most helpful thing to make it through high school is to maintain your friendships. Mirikitani said growing up together as a group and going through the same things together, “is definitely helpful.”

Mirkitani is heading to USF to major in health sciences while Murphy will head to UCF. Murphy said she hasn’t chosen a major yet, but is leaning toward the biology field.