Mallory Johnson, salutatorian of Smithfield High School’s class of 2024, finds inspiration in a song released decades before she was born.
“Slow down, you’re doing fine; you can’t be everything you want to be before your time,” she told her 298 fellow graduates at Smithfield High’s June 14 graduation ceremony at Liberty Live Church in Hampton, quoting the lyrics to Billy Joel’s 1977 hit “Vienna.”
“As we are adults now, I know that a sudden pressure has been placed on our shoulders to figure out what our future entails,” Johnson said. “However, that does not mean that the steps along the way are not as important every success every failure every time you simply don’t know what to do these all contribute to the individual that you are and will be.”
Seth Thomas, the school’s valedictorian, urged his classmates to “stay curious” and highlighted the school’s career and technical education or CTE and Governor’s School programs.
“Some of you guys might be able to get jobs, well-paying jobs better than most of us will get in our lives, right out of high school,” Thomas said to Smithfield’s CTE students, while those admitted to either the Governor’s School for the Arts or Governor’s School for Science and Technology “basically went through a year or two of college.”