PERRYVILLE – The Perryville High School Class of 2025 entered Perry Park Center Friday evening as students, and exited as graduates ready to embrace the futures they have planned. Diplomas were awarded to 208 students, some of whom graduated early and returned to walk the stage with their classmates.
Principal Shadrick Shafer welcomed the graduating seniors and guests to the ceremony, which was delayed 90 minutes to allow severe weather to pass. Senior Class President Leah Traut also welcomed her classmates and those in attendance.
Ayla Schuler was selected by vote of faculty and students to deliver this year’s address. She is the daughter of Wendy Schuler and Marion Layton of Perryville. After graduation, Ayla will attend Southeast Missouri State University where she will major in vocal music education with piano as her primary instrument. She has earned the 2025 John Philip Sousa Band Award, and Southeast Missouri State University’s Copper Dome, Residence Life Leadership, and Residence Life Supplemental Scholarships.
Ayla told her classmates about finding a musical arrangement called “Cliff Notes” in a stack of gifted music. At first the piece made no sense, as the melody was inconsistent and the lyrics appeared to be random. Soon, she realized that the lyrics were the disjointed thoughts of a mother trying to remember all the advice she wants to give her son before he leaves home. The full title of the piece is “Cliff: Notes From Your Mother as You Leave Home.” The advice includes “Don’t wait too long to get started,” and “Always poke it with a stick first to see if it moves.”
Imparting similar advice to her classmates appealed to Ayla for her graduation speech, so she asked more than 20 faculty members to share life advice.
“Whether you are moving out for college, commuting, taking a gap year, joining the workforce, or entering the Armed Forces, we are all beginning a new part of life where we finally decide how we want to live. And to be successful in that, we need all the advice we can get,” she said before sharing the Class of 2025’s personal Cliff Notes.
“Cliff Note No. 1 is from Mrs. (Cynthia) Buerck in the English Department,” Ayla said. “She said, ‘People will come and go throughout your life, but at the end of the day, you will always have to live with yourself. Make sure you are someone you want to spend your life with.’
“Cliff Note No. 2 is from Mrs. (Amy) Camarillo, business and marketing instructor. She said, ‘A dream with a deadline becomes a goal. A goal written down into steps is a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams a reality.’”
Ayla also shared advice from Mr. Jacob Bagot, band director: “Gratitude turns what we have into enough;” and from Mrs. Gretchen Jacob: “The sad reality of life is that the one person you say you will visit will no longer be here someday. Take the time to see them, to talk to them, take the time to listen to their stories.”
Finally, she shared advice from Principal Shadrick Shafer: “Graduation is not an ending, it is an egress to a million paths, and an opportunity to truly test the mettle, the skills, and the wherewithal each young man and woman has developed over the preceding 13 years. It’s exciting. It’s terrifying. It’s new. It’s the future that is both inevitable and beautiful with unknowable opportunities … it’s a blank page.”
Ayla concluded by saying, “Class of 2025, there is a wealth of heartfelt wisdom in the words our educators and faculty chose to share. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, (almost) everything is your choice from now on. Choose what advice will work for your way of life. The educators and faculty at Perryville High School would agree that whichever one in a million paths you choose, let it be yours.”
Don O’Keefe, PHS health teacher and head baseball coach, was chosen by students to deliver the 2025 commencement address. Mr. O’Keefe earned a bachelor of arts degree in social sciences from McKendree University, and a master’s degree in administration from William Woods University. He first joined the faculty of Perryville High School in 1999 as a social studies teacher. He then worked at Jackson R-II Public Schools before returning to PHS in 2022.
His message to the graduates was that they could choose to be pessimists or optimists in their lives. He related the story of former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop who won the 2007 World Series MVP Award. Mr. O’Keefe told the students that Eckstein had zero offers to play college ball, but he begged coaches at the University of Florida in Gainesville for an opportunity to try out for the team. “He didn’t make it the first time, so he put in the work and begged for another shot,” O’Keefe said. “He was finally given his shot as a walk-on infielder for the Florida Gators. After spending a decade in the minors, Eckstein was drafted in the 19th round by the Red Sox in 1997, but he didn’t make it to a roster until 2001 when the Anaheim Angels picked him up off the waivers.”
O’Keefe told the graduating class that they could choose to give up, like many people thought Eckstein should do, when their dreams don’t come easy, or they could find it in themselves to work harder and believe that what they want is possible. “Eckstein went on to win a World Series with Anaheim in 2002, then went on to play for the St. Louis Cardinals. In his first two seasons, he was an All-star and in 2006, the Cardinals won the World Series where he was named MVP of the Series. He finally called it a career after 10 seasons, when lots of people wrote him off years before.
The Class of 2025 then enjoyed the annual Project Graduation celebration, an all-night lock-in party at the Park Center.
