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THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, May 15, 2020 Page 11 ASKS | from page 10 A: Yes. Q: Now that you graduated from high school, what do you want to do with your life? A: Right now, I think I just want to stay realistic. I want to go to college and get my degree, and I want to get a job in the engineering field. Then we can work on what we really want to do with our lives. My lifelong dream is to invent something new, patent it, sell it, make a fortune and retire by age 35. But right now, I’m staying realistic. Q: What makes you such an exceptional student? A: It’s not really what I think makes me exceptional. I think it’s about more that I am surrounded by a really top group of exceptional scholars and students, and that kind of keeps me going. And I want to be the best that I can be. It’s really being surrounded by my peers that are in all of the classes that I’m in – and they are all so intelligent – and that kind of competition is what really brings out the best in my abilities and pretty much everyone else’s, too. Q: And what does it feel like to achieve this honor, of being the top student in your class? A: I’ll tell you how I felt when I learned it. It felt like a giant relief because I learned that I was sitting at the top of the class ranking at the end of my junior year when I won the Harvard Book Award – once I got that award and I thought about it. Yeah, I wanted it. I decided this is what I want. It was actually a bit of relief, and a lot of pride in myself. I made a lot of people proud. Q: Do you have anybody special that you look up to? Who is your role model? A: My role model is my greatgrandfather. His name is Jerry Lanney. He passed away literally a week after I started in the sixth grade. I was 11. That was like the first major family death I ever experienced, and it really left quite a mark on me, when I thought about who he was. He was a United States Marine during World War II, and his company was sent to go fight the Battle of Iwo Jima, and he fought the entire battle – all 54 days. He was a spotter on a boat. His job was to spot the enemy and then coordinate for the firing team who would then fire the shells at those coordinates. He watched as the Marines raised the flag. I credit him for who I am, the way I am and how focused and dedicated I am and my perseverance. He basically instilled that in me without even telling me. He ended up being the one I wanted to make proud. And I feel like I have certainly done it, and I feel like I got to keep going and I got to keep getting better. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without having him be in my life for as long as he was. You can ask anybody. I often wear U.S. Marine Corps T-shirts, hats; I have a United States Marine Corps keychain that was his. People who don’t know about him will ask, “Are you thinking about going into the Marines?” I tell them “No,” that I don’t have the guts to do that. I wear the Tshirts in honor of him to keep his legacy alive. Q: Wow. That is a pretty good hero to look up to. A: Yes. Q: What’s your favorite subject? A: My favorite subject is Physics. I absolutely loved A.P. Physics. I got a 93 in the class. I did pretty good. I also like Calculus, too. They kind of go hand in hand. Q: Besides achieving the honor of being the Valedictorian of your class, what has been the highlight of your high school career? What is your proudest accomplishment? A: The adjudication festival for the bands – you play in front of judges. You get judged, and they award you either a platinum, gold, silver or bronze plaque. We went my sophomore year. It was in Springfield, Mass. We actually didn’t have any trumpets at the time; they actually couldn’t make it that day, and we still managed to pull out the gold adjudication plaque. And that was really a proud moment…that we were able to pull that off. It was a very special moment for what I call the band family. Winning that gold plaque was the best feeling ever because everybody was so nervous on the bus ride to Springfield. It was like five in the morning and we were the first band to go. We were all really, really nervous, especially when we had to play at eight in the morning, but we were able to knock the judges socks off. They were so impressed because of our size and that we were missing our trumpets and we still managed to entertain them as much as we did. That was the moment I really got into music and decided this was going to be a part of my life. Also, on the plus side of that, after we finished playing, we got free tickets to go to Six Flags. We finished about nine o’clock and showed up at Six Flags at 10 o’clock, and we stayed there the rest of the day. That was a really good day. We were supposed to go again this year, but, unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Q: When you’re not being a student or working, how do you like to spend your time? A: I like to do a couple of difJuly or August, and it would take place at Stackpole [Field]. But it would be a socially distant graduation, almost like military-style: Each graduate would be, like, 10 feet apart from each other; there would be limited or no audience; and the graduation would be livestreamed, and everyone could watch it from home. There’s that option and there are two other options that would take place on June 5, which is supposed to be our graduation date. So, one June 5 option would LET’S DRIVE: Class of 2020 Valedictorian Matthew Lanney, says he prefers to see “a parade-style graduation” on June 5, when the graduates, their families, friends and other guests would drive through town and end at the new Saugus Middle-High School complex, where they would receive their diplomas. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate). ferent things. I’m a huge gamer type. I’ll be honest: I love to play video games on my PlayStation. I like to do my karate as well. I’ve been at Saugus Karate Kung Fu since I was four and a half, right in the town center. I’m a first degree brown belt in Kempo Karate, the belt right before black belt. From karate, I have learned respect, discipline, self-confidence and self-awareness, teamwork and perseverance. And I like to play pickup basketball games with my friends. Pickup street hockey is pretty big with us, too. Q: Let’s talk a little bit about COVID-19 and how this has impacted your senior year of high school. What will you remember five to 10 years from now? A: That we were the class that didn’t get a graduation? No, I don’t want us to be remembered that way. I think the main thing I will remember is the time I spent with my classmates when I did. And I’m going to appreciate that time a lot more than I originally would have, I think, if something like this [COVID-19] didn’t happen – if we didn’t get shut down… Q: You mean you probably would have taken time spent with classmates for granted if you didn’t get shut down. Is that fair? A: Yeah. Yeah. They’re very special people already. Now there are going to be even more special people in my life, because we are all in the same boat. I really hope that we can all get back together someday, just to kind of sit down with some good food and have a chat about what we’re doing – whether it’s a year from now or five years from now – I hope we can all come together again and all look back and really appreciate the time we spent in that old Saugus High School. Q: I guess it should be a good reunion then. A: What do you think? Do you think we are entitled to a one-year class reunion? Q: Yes. I guess, under the circumstances – usually you have to wait five years for the first one, right? A: Yes. I think we are entitled to a one-year reunion, given the circumstances. It’s really sad that I’m not going to be able to walk across that graduation stage and the promenade stage. I was really looking forward to sharing that moment with my girlfriend, Cherilyn [Chadwick]: walking across the promenade stage with her and just absolutely blowing away everybody. I was looking forward to that for a long, long time. Her mother knows a guy who has a bunch of old cars and we were going to try to get him to drive us in one of his fancy 1950’s cars. It was going to be a real big thing. Unfortunately, now we can’t do that. Q: How will graduation be observed now? What do you hear? A: They actually sent out a survey not that long ago, asking “What do you guys want for graduation?” It seems like they’re putting a lot of it into our own hands. But the options we have right now are a postponed graduation, which would be taking place, like, in be a completely virtual graduation, which probably would be all 162 of us on a zoom call. And there was this option – which is my favorite option – a parade-style graduation where we would start somewhere and end at the Middle-High School complex, and we’d probably be able to have a couple of speeches, and then they would give us our diplomas. I personally favor that option because everyone could still be there. If we went with the 10-foot-apart graduation, I wouldn’t really care for it because not all of my family could be there, if not any of my family. That’s why I prefer the parade-style: We could all get in the car; my grandparents could go in their car; I could go in mine; my parents could go in theirs. It would be able to work and still safely happen. Those are just the options. They haven’t confirmed anything yet. I think they are waiting for Gov. Baker’s address on the 18th [of May] to make a final decision on it. Q: Are you still writing a Valedictorian Address? A: Yes, I am. Q: So, you are in the process now? A: Yes, I just finished my second rough draft, and I’m waiting for my mom to come home so I can read it to her and see how she likes it and how I can edit it more. Q: What will be the message to your classmates and the community? A: It’s going to be a message about unity and togetherness, as opposed to how I got to this point and how I can give you tips to get to this point. I want to talk about current events and relate it to how we’ve unified before and we can still do it again, and then what that means for us, going on in the future. Q: A lot of people that know you probably think that school comes easy for you. Does it? Could you relax a little and still excel in the classroom? A: It depends – it depends on what class we’re talking about. If we’re talking about any Math ASKS | SEE PAGE 12

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