School's out and aren't they glad!
High school, the movie
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

MOVIEMAKER--Ethan Kuperberg, at left, with actor Sean Astin at the 2005 Calabasas Method Fest.

If high school were like a movie, then Agoura High School senior Ethan Kuperberg would have written, directed and produced the four-year project.

Ethan's June 15 commencement address on the school's football field, sheathed in new synthetic turf just in time for the ceremony, compared each year of high school to segments of a movie.

Freshman year is high school's "opening credits," followed by a summer "montage" of romance and "first loves," said Ethan, a budding filmmaker.

Action is introduced during the sophomore year. "You may have had the chase scene during your first time sneaking off campus, the big budget explosion during driver's ed, the classic romance that ends up being merely a dream sequence," he said.

What would a movie be without some low points? Junior year provides the typical downer moments in high school.

"Things fall apart--friends drift, people change, college and the future loom ahead like a wicked antagonist with a scheme for vengeance and stress," Ethan said. The finale of the high school drama is the inexorable yearlong march to graduation, tinged with giddy anticipation yet underscored by the inevitable denouement that brings students and parents to tears simply because graduation represents an ending.

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers TIME TO CELEBRATE--Daniel Shuman, 18, of Agoura gives his mother, Tammy, a big hug after the graduation ceremony at Agoura High School last Friday.

"All we have now is the falling action of bittersweet emotions, the end of the movie," Ethan said. "Of course, our ending here is the beginning to a new chapter, but to merely summarize it as that is to belittle the movie as a whole."

Ethan encouraged his classmates to enjoy whatever "scenes" they're in, "no matter how poorly it was originally written.

"Things are supposed to fall apart, you're supposed to question why we bother at all, you're supposed to worry if the hero in the story will fail," Ethan said. "But to make the most of every moment, even the most melancholic, is the moral of the movie. There is no substitute for reminiscing with no regrets."