WOODBURY – A bedazzled shine, a million rhinestones, photos glued on, and bright typography. When graduating, Nonnewaug students show off their creative skills by using their graduation cap.
For years a high school tradition has been decorating your graduation cap. Students use this as ways to show their progress through high school, where they are going for college/career, or photos of their friends.
But it isn’t just about creativity. The graduation cap can be meaningful to students to look back on.
Usually students get the cap two days before graduation, which means they have all year to brainstorm and get supplies. But within these two days, students have to cram time into decorating their cap with a short period of time.
“I am going to something with a military/cop/vet/FFA theme because it has been a big part of my life growing up,” says senior Bryannamaria Musto. “I grew up around a military/cop family and my family is heavy on law enforcement and medical stuff.”
These caps have a range of ideas like their future career, school and meaningful things including family, animals, and more.
“My cap is going to be a quote that says, ‘I don’t forgive you, but thank you for this,’” says senior Lori Marquis. “It’s important to me because I’m pretty much saying I don’t forgive anyone for treating me badly but that I know I can move on from it and stay on a positive path.”
Students can embrace where they’re going to college as well.
“For my cap, I’m going to write ‘Go Huskies’ with the mascot, Jonathan,” says senior Sophia Lingley. “I might also put some paw prints, too. I think it’s a good idea for seniors to honor their future as well as their past.”
With all the things going on with seniors, James Assard thinks that decorating the cap is a good distraction from all the stress associated with graduating.
“I think having a grad cap is a great idea for students to be creative and bring some fun into the process of graduating,” says Assard. “People get to decorate them with stuff they are interested in or stuff that they like which is a great idea because students can decorate with their own interests or stuff they like which makes it special to them.”
