Seniors at Seymour Regional High School are ready to make their marks on life, as 505 out of 609 students have chosen Robert Frost’s immortal words as their yearbook quote.
"I've always known that I wasn't like the other kids," Ana Lombardi, the 374th student who opted for the quote, says with a cool confidence. Lombardi, who on seven separate Halloweens opted to wear costumes identical to her four best friends’, explains it like this:
“My whole life, I’ve been taught that there’s only one me in this world, so why be anyone else?”
As friends Anna Walsh and Ana Gordon, or students #299 and #501 of the 505, nod in agreement, Lombardi concludes with a shrug, “I know it might sound really cocky, but I've never been afraid of going my own way."
Nathan Calder, the 425th student in his class to select Frost's adage for his yearbook quote, prizes originality above all else.
"I'm always the guy making goofy faces in the hall or in pictures and at events and stuff," says Calder with a grin. “It’s who I’ve always been.”
Whipping out his phone, Calder boasts a photo of himself and eleven other white, brown-haired male classmates--students #117-128 to choose the poet’s sage words--sticking their tongues out while flashing the “devil horns” sign. "When I’m with my boys, I’m the crazy one, and I'm proud of that."
This student body’s displays of individualism have inspired those who’ve taught them. When Yearbook Adviser and English teacher Margaret Gafferty saw hundreds of requests for the same quote rolling in, she nearly wept with pride.
"These kids march to the beat of their own, thematically similar drums," declared Gafferty. "If Robert Frost himself could meet the legion of people using one sentence from all literary canon to declare their uniqueness from everyone else who’s using it, I know he’d see a class ready to take this world by storm.”
At press time, ninety-eight percent of those who have quoted Frost for their yearbooks also plan on selecting “Marie” or “Rose” as their future daughters’ middle names.
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