Coral WilsonDuring her junior year, Khristy Feldt...

Coral Wilson

During her junior year, Khristy Feldt lost sight of graduation.

She got mixed up with partying, hanging out with her friends and

ditching school. She became lazy, failed a class and then reality hit

her -- she might not make it.

Feldt pulled her act together, took adult school classes and

proved she would not be left behind. On June 12, more than 500

graduates dressed in green robes marched proudly into Edison High

School’s grassy quad. Feldt was among them.

“I actually didn’t think I could do this,” Feldt said. “I did it

for myself -- kicking butt, going to school and studying harder.”

She might have fallen behind in her studies, but she said she

learned some important life lessons that she will remember for the

future.

“Don’t let friends influence you at all,” she said. “Do what you

are supposed to do. And listen to your parents -- they know.”

Overhearing Feldt’s newfound wisdom, MaryAnn Reynolds smiled. Her

daughter, Shana Reynolds, had been involved with the same group of

friends.

“It was a struggle but they made it,” she said. “They all made it,

except for a couple.”

Like Feldt, Shana Reynold made the choice to graduate. Now, it was

just a matter of staying on the right track.

“I’m hoping she keeps her head straight and gets through life with

ease,” MaryAnn Reynolds. “It’s hard these days. This generation has

it hard.”

She knew the class of 2003 well. She had watched many of them grow

up since elementary school together. Her eyes welled up with tears at

the thought of them parting ways for the first time. But she said one

day they will come back together again -- they always do.

“I love them, they’re good kids,” she said. “They’ll be lifelong

friends, all of them.”

For some graduates, the challenge hadn’t been to stay in school,

but to stick with their passions. Tom Hamilton said there was a time

when his daughter, Rachel Francis, almost gave up playing music.

Now Francis is one of the finest trumpet players in the United

States and was one of four in the country chosen to attend the

University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, her

father said.

“There was a point when she almost made the decision to abandon

her music for a friendship she thought was more important,” Hamilton

said. “You know the old fork in the road story? That was her fork in

the road.”

It was not his daughter’s academic achievements that Hamilton said

made him so proud, but the courage, determination and character she

had developed.

“Music is the love of her life,” he said. “She’ll be a great

performer someday. She will be. Because that’s what she wants and she

has the ability to achieve it.”

As their days at Edison High School came to an end, the graduates

finally understood that school is not just about making the grade.

“What you know isn’t as important as how you think,” faculty

speaker Matt Whitmore said.

He gave his final words of advice with a water polo cap placed

confidently on his head: Be who you are. Be creative. Be unafraid. Be

willing to look foolish if you are making a valid point.

“The world is better because you are living in it,” he said. “It

will be better because you make it that way.”