It's all over ... except for the speeches

School ended last week for West Aurora High School seniors. Prom is over, finals are finally complete and the students are ready for their caps and gowns.

But the work of the Class of 2008 Valedictorian Samantha Tyner is not complete until she and two other classmates speak for the last time in front of family and friends at the Northern Illinois Convocation Center in DeKalb at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Tyner, of North Aurora, has been working along with the others on saying just the right thing in her five minutes at the podium.

Even though Tyner plays the clarinet in the pep band, has been very active in Student Council, is a mathlete competitor, is in the National Honor Society and French Honor Society and chaired last weekend's St. Jude Charity softball game, she also admits to finding the time to "watch way too much TV."

Indeed, she is relating her TV watching to her four years at West High in her commencement speech.

"I'm taking a different route with my speech this year," she said. "I'm taking a retrospective look at high school with a different TV show representing each year of high school."

She said freshmen don't know who their friends and enemies are yet and that reminds her of the show "Alias."

"Sophomores think they know everything and every sophomore treats freshmen terribly," Tyner said. She compares sophomores to the know-it-all doctor on "House".

Tyner thinks high school junior's lives are full of drama like "Grey's Anatomy."

The writer's strike disrupted many of her favorite shows during her senior year. But she managed to start watching "Chuck."

"Chuck works at a store fixing computers and he gets an e-mail with CIA secrets and he gets involved in the CIA when he would rather just play video games with his friends," she said. Tyner explained high school seniors are focused on college and not on school work and just want to have fun their last year as kids.

She wants her classmates to consider how their lives or their own personal TV shows of their lives will turn out after graduation.

"How do you want your life to turn out," she asks. "Will it be a joke like 'Flavor of Love' or a serious long-term success like 'Law and Order."

West High's band director Steve Orland said in addition to the pep band and the marching band, Tyner is also in the Wind Symphony, the school's top ensemble. Orland said most students who make it into the symphony have private lessons.

"It's a testament to Samantha's innate talent and hard work that she's made it without the extra lessons," he said.

Orland also noted "the people who do well in school are the most involved," and that certainly describes Tyner and her many interests and activities in school.

Bob James is the faculty adviser for the Student Council at West High.

"Samantha has been one of the main leaders of the student council all her four years," James said. "If she's been in charge of a project I don't have to worry; she'll get it done."

James notes Tyner even returned to school to chair the charity softball game even though she was officially out of school.

Tyner plans on attending Augustana College in the fall and is still deciding on her major. "I know I'll do something with math," she said.

She is taking a trip to France with the French Club in June and then coming home to find a summer job.

Tyner lives with her 16-year-old sister and 14-year-old brother with her father in North Aurora. Her mother and stepfather and 6-year-old twins and a 3-year-old live in Batavia.

I don't think we'll have to worry about how Tyner's own TV show will end. She seems to have a good idea of where she is headed even if she hasn't picked out a major yet.