FROSTBURG — The words of an Allegany County Board of Education member summed up the feelings of everyone in attendance at Beall High School’s graduation Friday night, when she said: “It’s an emotional day for me and I went to school in New Jersey.”

Speaking about the emotions that were riding high not just for the graduates, but also for their families, Karen Treber got to the heart of the matter, as the final commencement ceremony was held for the students of a school that has seen 110 such ceremonies during its long history. Then she gave them one of the many pieces of sage advice they heard throughout the evening.

“Use your imagination to decide your future. Then use knowledge to go out and get what you want,” Turner said.

The fu-ture was spoken of by everyone who took a turn at the podium, in-cluding Bill AuMiller. The superintendent of schools called “ironic” the fact that “school days are spent yearning for the future,” and the rest of one’s life is spent reminiscing about days that were spent in school.

Everyone who took to the stage also spoke about the finality of the occasion, as area students who would have gone to Beall will instead attend Mountain Ridge High School when school resumes in autumn. It was a topic the seniors were discussing as they adjusted their caps and fastened their gowns, while preparing beforehand for the ceremony.

“I like the tradition. Everyone in my family except my mom graduated from Beall ... and I’m sad she can’t follow through with that tradition,” Lindsay Hanna said. Her sister, who is just 10, will be affected by the demolition of Beall High, when it is razed to make way for the new high school’s athletic facilities.

A lifelong Frostburg resident, Hanna seems to typify the 2007 graduating class, whom their teachers called “diligent,” and “competitive leaders,” and whom Laura Connor, the class president, said were comprised of questioning explorers.

From her high school experience, Hanna carries away with her not just support from her loving parents, but also a desire “to be able to accomplish something in my life.” She will enter McDaniel College in Westminster in the fall, where she will major in French, which Hanna plans to use in her career as a travel journalist.

Treber called travel a “radical” idea, as she encouraged the graduates to “go explore other people’s little corners of the world.” Treber said the experience would take them out of their realm of familiarity, and thrust them into a world that would “broaden your perspective on life and ... most of all, make you value life here in Allegany County.”

While Treber’s words may have sounded “radical” to most of the graduating seniors, it didn’t to all of them. Gunsel Ozcan has already had a chance to explore other lands and people, since her parents met and married in Turkey, while in college. Ozcan said her mother came to Frostburg as an exchange student, and was a member of the 1979 Beall High graduating class.

Ozcan spent 11 years living in Cypress, Greece, before moving here in eighth grade. But even though she has traveled beyond Allegany County’s borders, Ozcan said it is the people here she will most remember. “They’re so warm hearted.”

And when it came to her teachers, Ozcan refused to single out any one teacher who provided her with more insight or wisdom than any of the others. “They’re all so great!” she said.

Those Beall High teachers taught Ozcan something that came through as a theme for everyone in the final graduating class — Ozcan said they taught her to “be a strong individual and never give up.”

Daleen Berry can be reached at dberry@times-news.com.