For Syd Cothern, crossing a finish line has never been just about running.
The Philomath High School senior has been a distance runner for most of her high school career — four years on the track team, three in cross-country — and somewhere along the way, the discipline required to push through miles of discomfort became the same discipline that carried her to graduation.
Cothern, daughter of Emily Clark, will be among 120 students scheduled to receive diplomas Saturday at Philomath High School’s graduation ceremony. The event begins at 11 a.m. at Clemens Field.
“I don’t want to say that I did it all by myself, but this is very much a solo thing,” Cothern said. “I am the one who made myself do everything, the one who pushes myself to get here.”
It’s a perspective that comes with maturity well beyond her years. Cothern has navigated significant health challenges throughout high school — including a pair of cancer scares that turned out to be something else entirely — while managing Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder, and narcolepsy, a sleep condition that leaves her fighting fatigue every single day.
She could easily have leaned on accommodations, taken extensions and accepted help at every turn. She had every right to. But that’s not how Cothern operates.
“Just because I was tired, that doesn’t mean I get to cheat,” she said. “I’m fairly hard on myself.”
That internal standard didn’t come from nowhere. Cothern started working at 13, taking on a job to pay for a horse she’d bought. The ethic took root early and never let go.
“I have always tried really hard,” she said. “I don’t know where I got it from, but I don’t want to disappoint people.”
Running has been a through line — an outlet, a proving ground, a place where the effort she puts in is directly reflected in what she gets out. Last fall’s cross-country season tested that relationship in a new way. Cothern was severely anemic without knowing it, watching her times slow race after race with no explanation.
“I just had no idea why I was running slower and slower every single race,” she said. “But I did make it to state.”
She placed poorly, by her own admission. She didn’t care. Getting there was the point.
“I’m really proud of that, and I’m proud that I was able to bounce back after figuring out what was wrong with me and getting iron infusions. I’m proud that I stuck with it.”
Sticking with it, it turns out, is something of a personal philosophy for Cothern — and one she puts in global context without prompting. She’s thought hard about what graduation means, not just for herself but in comparison to students around the world who never get the chance.
“I’m going to think about how lucky I am to be there, because not everyone gets the chance to graduate,” she said. “I think I’m really fortunate to be able to go to high school and to graduate and then pursue a higher education.”
That higher education begins this fall at Linn-Benton Community College, where Cothern plans to study pre-law before transferring to Oregon State University to pursue a law degree. This summer, she’s eyeing a construction job or picking up more hours at the barn where she currently works.
She wants people at the ceremony — classmates, families, anyone watching — to pause and consider their own fortune.
“I want people to think about how lucky they are to have the opportunity to graduate and have the opportunity to live somewhere where there aren’t wars going on,” she said. “I want people to be grateful and then think about what else is going on in the world and that their problems maybe are smaller than they seem.”
For Cothern, the diploma at the end of this weekend’s ceremony isn’t a gift. It’s a result — earned step by step, just like every mile she’s run.
“You can’t truly achieve something without making yourself do it,” she said. “You can’t achieve something if someone else makes you do it.”
