|
Raylen Bark, who will
graduate May 28 as valedictorian of Cherokee High School,
plans to major in anthropology at Dartmouth College this fall.
Cherokee High School photo
|
Raylen Bark, a multi-sport athlete and National Honor Society member,
had also been selected as one of 10 tribal members to represent
the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in the 2020 Remember the Removal
Ride, during which she would pedal a bicycle from Cherokee and along
the Trail of Tears into Oklahoma. Her days were full of school,
strength training, sports practices and games basketball
season was just ending, and track starting up and then bicycle
training. Remember the Removal riders were required to take genealogy,
language and history classes as well, and somewhere in there Bark
also had to find the time for homework.
Then, the pandemic hit. Sports were canceled, school was canceled
and the Remember the Removal Ride, too, was eventually canceled.
"I was really, really upset about everything, because we had put
in so much work and time and effort into training for all these
things," said Bark. "It felt like it was just stripped away from
us."
Bark, like high school seniors worldwide, would not get to end
her high school career with rites of passage like dancing at prom,
scrawling earnest promises to stay friends forever in the pages
of 100 yearbooks, and receiving her diploma before a cheering crowd.
She wouldn't even have the chance to say goodbye to her classmates
nobody knew that last day would mark the end of all normalcy.
Life slowed down, drastically. Bark has been trying to use the
time well, spending time with her family and learning more about
her culture and its accompanying folk traditions from older family
members. Bark has long had an interest in such things the
quarantine has just given her more time to nurture that interest.
In college, she plans to study anthropology with the eventual goal
of graduating from law school.
"I just want to study native law and come back and help the tribe,
whether it's as an attorney or a judge," said Bark. "I just want
to give back to my tribe."
First, though, comes high school graduation, and Bark will play
a unique role in guiding the Class of 2020 through this unprecedented
time. On May 13, she learned that she would graduate as valedictorian
of her class.
Cherokee Central Schools made the announcement in a video published
to its Facebook page. In the video, mask-wearing teachers sit in
the gym holding pieces of paper that on one side have letters spelling
out the words "salutatorian" or "valedictorian," with the letters
printed on the opposite side spelling out the names of the seniors
who would now bear those titles. When they flipped the sheets, the
news was out Tierney Bradley would be salutatorian and Bark,
valedictorian. Bark watched the video surrounded by family.
"We were all nervous, I guess, watching the video. And then I was
announced. We were all super happy," she said.
Graduation which will take place on Thursday, May 28
will look quite a bit different than in years past. At 4 p.m., a
parade of cars bearing the seniors and their guests limited
to nine apiece will begin at the Exxon station at Whitewater
Drive and progress to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, up Aquoni
Road and then to the school. Community members are encouraged to
come out and show their support as the parade goes by, though masks
and social distancing are required. Once at the school, each senior,
along with their guests all masked will get out of
the car, walk across the stage, and receive their diploma. Instead
of giving her speech with her entire class seated in front of her,
Bark will make a video of herself reading it, and that video will
be broadcast on Cherokee Central Schools' Facebook page, along with
the rest of the graduation proceedings.
As she spoke to The Smoky Mountain News, Bark was still working
on her speech. She said she planned to revisit some of the good
memories her class had made together and then to offer some encouraging
words about the present.
"We've really had to persevere through all these situations," said
Bark. "Especially these past months. That's something that really
deserves to be celebrated. I'm extremely proud of how everyone's
been handling it."
|