He may have been the last to receive his high school diploma from Rifle High School on Sunday afternoon, May 23, but he was the first student to graduate from as both an online Kaplan Academy student and a RHS senior.

Dylan Wagner received his high school diploma along with 125 of his classmates in the class of 2010, as they bid farewell to their school and looked forward to starting a new adventure.

Wagner was a part-time student at RHS and also took online classes through the Kaplan Academy of Colorado through the Re-2 school district's Center for Integrated Studies.

“Kids take classes at Kaplan for a variety of reasons,” said Garrick Frontella, district coordinator for Kaplan Academy of Colorado. “There's more flexibility. They can take classes and work or if they're pursuing things like acting, music or sports that have different hours these programs have more flexibility.”

However, it's not an easy way out. The hours may be more flexible, but students are still expected to put in an average of six hours a day of study time.

The program is also helpful to those students who just don't fit in with the traditional brick and mortar school setting.

“But they're still academically connected with other groups of students through things like video conferencing,” Frontella said. “And this way, if they want to work, they can work. We look at each student's situation. It's very flexible. But it has all the (requirements) of high school. It's not an easy way out.”

Wagner was with his peers on a windy Sunday afternoon as teachers and fellow students took the podium.

Valedictorian Caleb Ziegler had plenty of personal advice to give his fellow graduates.

“This year has been weird in that when a sports season ends or when the last club event happens — it's over,” Ziegler said in his valedictorian address to his class. “It's kind of bittersweet because most of those things that have ended or that are ending are also things that are important to us, that we have invested parts of our lives in.”

Yet at the same time, the new replaces the old, Ziegler said.

“We all have the opportunity to reinvent who we are and who we will be in the future,” he continued. “That opportunity is a big one and it can be easily wasted. Don't wait for some moment in time or some future event to decide to be who you want to be or to decide to be the best that you can be. Chances are, that moment or event won't ever come.”

Outgoing Re-2 Superintendent David Smucker, kicked off the ceremony on the football field, asking proud parents, grandparents and great-grandparents all to stand.

Then he addressed the graduates.

“These are days of tremendous change in our lives,” Smucker said. “And as a high school graduate, you have completed the first crucial step in completing your goals. Good luck, good fortune and my very best wishes.”

English teacher Kimberly Mayer gave the commencement address, congratulating the students and offering her own advice.

“This will be the last piece of advice you will get from this school,” she said earnestly. “While this is a time of celebration, it's also moments like this that define who we really are. Make each moment the way you want it. If you don't know what you want to do yet, that's OK. You don't have to decide today. Use your heart as a guide.”

The graduates dressed in the Rifle High School Bears school colors — the girls in gold and the boys in blue — also each had a written closing statement reflecting on their four years in high school. Some were sentimental and some were just plain funny.

“Life is a garden — dig it,” was the advice imparted by Michael Galon Cash.

“Some say the glass is half empty. Some say the glass is half full. I say, are you going to drink that?” wrote Kasey Caron.

“I've been waiting to graduate since I was a freshman,” Tyler Danielson summed up.

Some just wanted to thank those that they love.

“I have no regrets — love to my family and friends and the class of 2010.”

And then, of course, there was the tear-jerker.

“High school is a lot like toilet paper,” according to Irving Gomez. “You only miss it when it's gone.”

With that, the Rifle High School Bears Class of 2010 went on to begin the next adventure in their lives.