About 3,000 family and friends hollered from the stands as 320 Boerne High School graduates closed out their high school careers and looked to their futures.
After the ceremonial presentation of the colors and the Boerne High School Choir sang the national anthem, graduate Dillen Cooper kicked off the ceremony with a few opening remarks.
Cooper recalled the accomplishments of her graduating class over their four-year tenure at Boerne High, including the two boys’ soccer state championships, the several state appearances by both athletic and academic teams and the Boerne High School band’s state sweepstakes. She noted there were too many accomplishments to list them all.
After thanking the audience, whether they had traveled from near or far or were watching on Zoom, for their support throughout her class’s high school years, Cooper became emotional as she looked to her peers, thanking them for their support.
“Lastly, I would like to personally thank each and every one of my fellow classmates who made all of this possible,” Cooper said. “You are my support system. My home away from home. And I cannot imagine high school without you. Actually, I can. You see, I didn’t do all four years here at Boerne. I started somewhere else.
“That means I know how different Boerne is. How special it is. I can tell you how special you all are and how much it means to me to be able to say I graduated from here. Today marks not just the end but the beginning of an amazing chapter that I cannot wait to share with you.”
Next to the stage was the salutatorian for the 2022 Boerne High graduating class, Amber Clark. Clark graduated with a 111.12 grade-point average and will move on to the University of Texas at Austin to study government.
Noting the oft coined “unprecedented times” the graduates faced in the past couple years as they journeyed through high school, Clark congratulated her peers for overcoming such challenging times and thanked the educators and administrators who helped and guided them along the way.
“I offer a heartfelt thanks to the teachers and administrators who made this night possible,” Clark said. “Through four years of uncertainty, you enabled us to thrive in the midst of a chaotic world. Thank you. Without your guidance, we would not be here today. I’m sure we’ve all heard the media’s description of these last few years: a time of unprecedented change and difficulty. Undoubtedly, our high school careers have been rife with challenges.
“Tonight, however, I would like to focus on the efforts and accomplishments of our students in overcoming these challenges. To my fellow students, thank you for uplifting each other. Each one of you has played a role in the formation of a community capable of overcoming innumerable obstacles. Tonight, we celebrate this achievement.”
Allison Clark took to the stage next as the valedictorian for the 2022 graduating class, and she quickly pointed out the last name shared by the salutatorian and herself. The two are twin sisters who finished their high school careers with grade-point averages that were less than half of a point apart. Allison graduated with a 111.56 GPA and will be attending Texas Tech to major in the Kinesiology honors program.
“To begin, no there is not a mistake on your program,” Clark said. “As scary as it is, there really are two of us, and the person who spoke before me is my twin sister. Now that that is cleared up, I stand before you as your 2022 Boerne High School valedictorian, a title that I have fought and sacrificed for through the past four years. Won by untold sleepless nights filled with enough stress to kill a blue whale, and enough tears to fill the ocean it lives in. This led to a feeling all of you are familiar with – one you know as senioritis.”
Acknowledging that her high school experience couldn’t possibly match that of all her peers, Clark urged her fellow graduates to remember the good and bad times they shared over the past four years and to keep in mind the relationships they developed. It was in this moment that Clark kicked off the first of many offbeat pop culture references to help narrate her speech, including Hannah Montana, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dr. Seuss.
As the students who had spent so many years together working toward one common goal begin new journeys apart, Clark employed a cliché that often rings true: “Whatever you do in life, do it well.”
“Whatever your future aspirations, take time to leave the confines of the ‘Boerne bubble,’ and remember that the opportunity to achieve greatness is within our grasp,” Clark said. “Obviously this will not be easy, and we will all have challenges thrown our way in attempts to keep us from succeeding. …
“We stand upon the cusp of infinite possibility. We have just begun to embark on this grand adventure.”
Comment
Comments