{"id":15603,"date":"2019-05-31T22:15:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T04:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=979721"},"modified":"2019-06-01T08:59:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-01T14:59:02","slug":"2019-bridges-graduates-celebrate-the-obstacles-overcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/2019-bridges-graduates-celebrate-the-obstacles-overcome\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 Bridges graduates celebrate the obstacles overcome"},"content":{"rendered":"
The class of 2019 from Bridge High School files in the The Orchard Friday evening in Carbondale for commencement. Twenty-nine students earned their diplomas during the event.<\/strong>
Kyle Mills \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNever let anyone invalidate your 18 or so years on this earth by calling them imaginary,\u201d Lilly Garrett, valedictorian of Bridges High School class of 2019 told her fellow graduates Friday evening.<\/p>\n

Bridges students have likely heard the expression, \u201cyou think this is hard? Wait until you get to the real world,\u201d Garrett said in her remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo this I answer, \u2018what world do you think I\u2019ve been living in?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As the 29 Bridges graduates walked the stage at The Orchard to receive their diplomas, teachers spoke about each student \u2013 their contributions to the school community, their aspirations, and the challenges they\u2019ve overcome.<\/p>\n

The teachers also read appreciations from the students to staff, friends and family. Yamiletzi Mata-Tarin thanked her family for not kicking her out, and \u201cRoaring Fork High School for kicking her out because it led her to Bridges, and her family and friends,\u201d Bridges counselor Maggie Riley said from the podium.<\/p>\n

As an alternative high school, Bridges has certain stereotypes, but those were quickly proved incomplete for the valedictorian after beginning classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransitioning from a traditional school to Bridges definitely dispelled a lot of stereotypes for me,\u201d Garrett said.<\/p>\n

Prejudging based on stereotypes is a mental shortcut that often misses the truth, Garrett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt boils down to this basic rule: Give everyone a chance. What you find to be true, and what you\u2019re proven wrong about \u2014 which will be a lot \u2014 may surprise you,\u201d Garrett said.<\/p>\n

Garrett has a job lined up as a behavioral therapist. Two students completed high school after having children. Seven held a job while attending Bridges, some took classes at Colorado Mountain College through dual enrollment programs, and two-thirds of the graduates were bilingual.<\/p>\n

Bair presented the finishers award to Vanessa Villalobos, who started a mentoring program at bridges for her senior year\u2019s capstone project.<\/p>\n

Bridges principal Lyn Bridges honored one student for embodying the qualities of finishers. Finishers \u201chave vision, they show up, they have courage, and they have humility,\u201d Bair said.<\/p>\n

All together, the class of 2019 have awarded $202,000 for college and advanced learning through scholarships from community associations, Bair said.<\/p>\n

Some graduates of Bridges will walk with Basalt High School or Roaring Fork High School\u2019s graduation ceremony Saturday.<\/p>\n

Graduates Gisselle Munoz Arroyo, Luis Gomez, Martin Gomez and Roman Santiago received $3,000 scholarships from Aspen Elks Lodge.<\/p>\n

Gomez \u201covercame almost impossible obstacles to be where he is today: Successful and full of hope,\u201d Riley said. \u201cEven though he said \u2018I\u2019ll never graduate,\u2019 he was still working hard at graduating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did it,\u201d Arroyo exclaimed before she retook her seat on stage.<\/p>\n

As the graduates received their diplomas from Rob Stein, the superintendent of Roaring Fork Schools, and hugged the staff of Bridges, the audience would cheer and clap, but no one received more applause than Max Grimaldi, whose capstone project was in sharing his story of recovery from addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe times that he visited Bridges and shared his story and wisdom have broadened our perspectives and enriched our community,\u201d said teacher Suzanne Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNever let anyone invalidate your 18 or so years on this earth by calling them imaginary,\u201d Lilly Garrett, valedictorian of Bridges High School class of 2019 told her fellow graduates Friday evening. Bridges students have likely heard the expression, \u201cyou think this is hard? Wait until you get to the real world,\u201d Garrett said in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 04:37:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15607,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15603\/revisions\/15607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}