Bright futures beckon at happy finale
BY JO GILBERT
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Five years of secondary school education soared skyward in a mass of blue-and-gold balloons yesterday morning for about 250 students from Marlborough Boys' and Girls' Colleges.
In a chorus of chants and fashionably late, about 130 girls' college students met about 120 boys' college students in central Blenheim's Market Place just after 10.30am for the annual year 13 graduates balloon release on the final day of classes.
An air of excitement, anticipation and sadness hung over the crowd as the boys and girls released their helium-filled balloons to the sky, signalling the end of their school years and the beginning of their futures.
The release was met by cheers and clapping from the crowd of friends, family, school staff and passersby gathered to see the tradition, which has been in place for about four years.
"I'm happy to leave, but sad to go," said Jim Evans, 17, who plans to study engineering at the University of Canterbury next year.
"I'm very sad to be going, as this school has given me a lot," Jim's friend Julian Jennings, also 17, added.
But he was excited for the future, with the beginning of a psychology degree at Canterbury in store for him in 2010.
Girls' college students Melissa Craven, Becky Brown, both 17, and Paige Beattie, 18, agreed they were torn by a mixture of sadness about the end of their school years, and excitement for the future.
With next year bringing a shift to Wellington for Melissa (nannying school) and Paige (a science degree at Victoria), and south to Christchurch for Becky (broadcasting at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology), the girls said they were looking forward to "leaving school and starting life". After the balloon release, students had morning tea and speeches.
- The Marlborough Express
