CHARLEMONT — Everyone in the Class of 2024 was a commencement speaker at the Academy at Charlemont, and each of the 11 new graduates reminisced and shared their graduation thoughts with cheering friends and family on Saturday afternoon. “Today is the least important day of my time at the Academy,” said Jasper Butler-Kurth of Easthampton. “Every day, I’ve had the honor .

.. of learning in amazing classes, and those classes have truly changed me for the better.

” “Today is the equivalent of ‘payday’ — the day where our effort is rewarded with a piece of paper with abstract meaning. But it is the community and the learning that has made me want to go to school almost every day of my four years with this community. The personal growth and sense of community, not to mention the fun that this school has offered me, means more to me than being able to say I am a graduate.

” Hazel Berner of Northampton had recently visited her old elementary school and remembered “how grown-up the seniors looked, how out of reach it all felt. To my 8-year-old self, it seemed a whole lifetime away.” And now that she herself is a graduating senior, “It is weird, being confronted by what you once were — and as your life goes on, and you have been so many different things,” she continued.

“I hope I will end up looking back on those versions of myself ...

with love. And I can’t wait to be witness to all the changing, aging versions of the people I love.” Paloma Huin Hsia.