As three women across three generations prepared speeches for their high school graduations, they each turned to the same Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem “Ulysses.” One line stood out to each of them: “I am a part of all that I have met.”
Joan Nelson never imagined that with that speech in 1961 when she graduated from Adairsville High School, she’d have started a line of valedictorians in the family — or that the line from the poem would continue to ring true for so many people.
“Never did I think that this quote would go on 63 years,” Nelson said. “I not only have come full circle, I have come two full circles. And I really feel that I have become a part of all that I’ve met.”
Nelson’s daughter, Sharon Viktora, was valedictorian at the same school in 1995. And Sharon’s daughter Callie Viktora followed in both of their footsteps when she graduated at the top of her class in May.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
Despite her family’s history, Callie Viktora never felt pressured to be first in her class. Her family taught her the value of hard work and finding her own motivation — which made all the difference in her life.
Callie Viktora has always been interested in science, and is planning to go to the University of Georgia to study biology and literature. She often wasn’t a fan of growing up in a small town. Adairsville in northwest Georgia has a population of about 5,000; there were less than 300 students in the high school’s senior class this year.
But by the time it was her turn to speak, she learned that what she may have lacked in opportunities by growing up in a small town, she more than made up for in love and support.
“I wanted that to be represented in my speech,” she said.
It made her mom and grandmother proud. “It’s very comforting to see that she’s grounded in that knowledge of how important relationships are,” Sharon Viktora said.
Nelson was one of 22 people who graduated in her 1961 class. She was offered a scholarship to college, but turned it down. She stayed in Adairsville with her family and future husband. She raised her children there — including Sharon Viktora, who remembers finding her mom’s valedictorian speech tucked away in a yearbook. Callie Viktora looked to both speeches to figure out what she would say in her own turn at the podium.
“Although our graduation nights span a difference of over 60 years, all of us Adairsville high graduates face the same daunting task,” Callie Viktora said in her address. “We are not just leaving behind our awkward teenage years; we are leaving behind parts of ourselves.”
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
Much has changed since Nelson was valedictorian — the number of students at the school have multiplied, for example; the curriculum is more intense; competition at the top of the class more fierce. But others remain the same. The family has always emphasized the importance of doing your best and lifelong learning. Nelson is hopeful that with those values in mind, the family’s legacy in Adairsville will continue.
“I’m just hoping and wishing that this continues, you know? I may not be there in the continuation of it, but as far as my family, I’d just like to see it keep going and be a thing that will continue on way beyond me,” Nelson said. “Family is my story.”
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