Where will the Crowsnest Consolidated High School class of 2016 be in 2026?

If the 10-year prophesies revealed at their graduation ceremony May 13 are at all accurate: Sydney Bohmer will still be wearing leggings underneath her dress, Ian Catonio will still be attempting to grow out his mullet and driving a Ford, Damian Dillabough will still be fixing things with WD40 and duct tape, Mary Jane Hounslow will still be complementing everyone and Damian Koskela will have gone through more vehicles than pairs of socks.

Some of the sixty 2016 CCHS graduates expressed an enviable amount of direction and purpose for their post-grad lives. Cooper Hagley said he’s traveling to Australia to study agriculture before coming back to Alberta to study engineering.

“I kind of have my life planned out so far,” he said.

Others were still developing their goals for life after high school.

Evan Reno said he’d be staying in the community for a year to work and then expressed vague wishes to study engineering or robotics.

“I don’t have a lot of set plans,” he said.

Many do not see themselves settling in the Pass for the long haul but Haylie Kuryluk said she’d come back to the community after studying culinary arts and photography.

“I’m staying in the Pass,” she said. “It’s close to family and I love the mountains.”

Valedictorian Liam Arbuckle expressed his desire to go out and explore the world.

“But if I had kids I’d want them to grow up in a small town,” he said. “So maybe I’d come back here.”

For Principal Wes Wescott, it was the last CCHS graduation ceremony. Wescott has accepted a position as principal of the 12 Hutterite schools of the Livingstone Range School Division and will be replaced by vice-principal Ian Baxter.

“This is a great group of kids,” said Wescott. “I will miss this. We get to see kids turn into young adults. This is the bitter sweet part.”

Speaking with more poise than most people twice his age, Class President Rain Inaba, impressed the packed audience of parents, teachers and well-wishers at the Crowsnest Sports Complex with a graduation speech that was thick with inspirational quotes.

“The most valuable currency is your own experience and your own profound effect on others and the world around you,” he said. “To experience your own life, you need to let the systems go. You need to ask your own questions, go your own way and discover and realize that wealth, glory, power and success does not mean fulfillment.”

“Life is a never-ending, swelling, storming ocean and we’re but sailors caught in the eye of the storm. Life will eventually happen for you, so you will be faced with two choices, to go your own way or follow fear’s way.”

“Tonight, on our night, we will take our first step.”