The Boerne Independent School District Stadium was booming late last month as nearly 500 Champion High School students bid farewell to their childhood education and looked to the future.
Champion honored 494 graduates on Friday. There were more than 3,000 guests in attendance at Boerne ISD Stadium, booming and hollering as their loved ones crossed the stage into adulthood.
Champion high saw the largest graduating class in Boerne ISD history.
The Boerne and Champion High School Class of 2023 received a reported total of nearly $22 million dollars in scholarship money.
Valedictorian: Tristan West Forks
Good evening family, friends, faculty, and most importantly, Class of 2023. I am blessed and honored to be here in front of you all tonight. It is my belief that we as a class thrive on opportunity. An opportunity to prove ourselves, an opportunity to be heard, an opportunity to develop into the people we desire to be. And now, looking forward, the biggest opportunities of our lives lay ahead of us; however, before we look forward, I’d like to take a moment to look back.
When we started our high school journey four years ago, none of us could imagine the challenges and trials we would eventually face. We had no idea that spring break our freshman year would become our summer as Covid shut down the globe. We weren’t able to see our friends, come to school as we had for nine years before, or interact with the world around us. These challenges were unique, ones that even our parents and teachers had never seen before, but we used these challenges as an opportunity. We saw an opportunity to grow and better ourselves, to spend more time with our families, and maybe to even play video games for 8 hours a day. While online school didn’t help us learn much about biology, math, or world history, it did help us learn about ourselves.
Despite these trials, we did experience many triumphs. Our athletic programs brought back multiple trophies and state titles, our fine arts programs have had a large magnitude of accomplishments, our academic UIL teams have found nothing short of success, and every one of us have had our own personal triumphs to be proud of as well. These triumphs have been impressive to say the least, but they have also provided us with more than another shiny trophy for the shelf. Through our wins and losses, our delight and our heartbreak, we have learned lessons that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. Lessons of perseverance and strength, lessons of gratitude and responsibility. These lessons have shaped our teenage years, and they will serve to benefit us even as adults.
I would like to express my gratitude to the teachers and faculty that have helped us to get here tonight. We could not have done it without your help and support. Thank you to Dr. Hinojosa for bringing a sense of community back to our school. We will forever be grateful for the continued support of our families and friends as we end one chapter of our lives and begin another. I would also like to show appreciation to this small town we call home. Having grown up and spent the last 18 years here, I can confidently speak for all of us when I say we will miss the community that makes Boerne so special. But most importantly, I would like to thank you, Class of 2023, as I never could have made it to this stage without you. Each and every one of you is an inspiration and a testament to what hard work can bring.
But now, as graduates, we have the biggest opportunities of our lives ahead of us. As we leave this small town for our future endeavors, we have the freedom to be the people we desire to see in this world. We have the chance to use the knowledge and skills gained during the past four years and apply it to the world around us. To say I look forward to seeing what this class can achieve is an understatement; I believe that each and every one of us has the potential to make this world one of higher quality. As the wise Taylor Swift once said, “You’re on your own, kid…you can face this.” This new chapter will be unlike anything we have experienced, but both Taylor Swift and I have faith in all of you. I encourage you to not look towards the future with nervousness and fear, but with hope and ambition. Thank you, and congratulations to you, Class of 2023!
Salutatorian: Aaron De Leon
Class of 2023, you’ve made it. Through triumph and failure, jubilation and despair, we are together tonight because despite the challenges to our being, we succeeded. As I look out to this sea of silky blue I am filled with the utmost pride and love for all of you. To many, this proclamation of love may seem strange coming from me. In much of my high school life I have been serious, uptight, studious. The person who works too much and speaks too little. Tonight, I will reveal myself to you, my true self, and at last share the words you never heard me say.
I regret to say that of the hundreds of you present here tonight, I know only a handful of you personally. We are together here, strangers to each other under this starry sky and yet I know that within each and every one of you lies a complex, vibrant soul. I have seen your radiant smile, dissolving my grave face of stone. I have heard your carefree laugh, liberating me from the storm in my burdened mind. I have felt your kindness, reminding me of the supremacy of good in this world.
Curious, unfamiliar, unmet friends before me, I know that my tender, worn heart beats alongside yours, equally tested and tempered. I know that in each beautiful breath, I take in the same complicated world as you. I know that despite our intangible separation, we are together, connected and one, because we are human.
Being a human is not perfect. Many times, we fail, and trust me, I have failed a lot. I have been consumed in helplessness writing those darn notecards for APUSH at three in the morning. I have cried with humiliation before teachers when my stress could no longer be bottled. I have been broken by the unspoken passing of some of my closest relationships. All of us share these memories, memories of that day - that day we cannot possibly imagine going to school. That day when everything feels impossible. That day is like a vicious storm. It’ll pour your tears, pellet hail as you go through hell, and throw your mind about, a seed lost in frivolous winds. But remember this, no storm is forever. Those nebulous, grim gray cotton balls of fluff will eventually part, and out of it will emerge beautiful, wonderful you with all your joy, love, and passion. We are all here because one way or another you pushed through. You are all storm breakers because you endured. You prevailed.
Now we will all embark on a new exciting journey where uncertainty is the only thing certain. Where we let our wild imaginations predict exotic possibilities with ChatGPT or wonder if robo-dogs will be the ones to tell us to sit. Most of us will be parting from the friends and family we know and hold dear. We will leave this beautiful community, the safe haven of the Boerne Bubble. At the flip of a switch, it will hit you, sudden, swift, brisk. Despite this dramatic change in your life, I know you all have the mind and heart to thrive.
With a thoughtful, curious mind, you will explore your vast new world with a thirst for the fresh spring of knowledge that awaits you; the spring that will illuminate the greatest riddles of ourselves, of others, and our environment. You will forge your own path in search of understanding and, being human, your path will be convoluted and nonsensical from afar. The straight path to enlightenment does not exist. You will fail, as inevitably you must, but you will not let failure cripple you. You cannot, must not, ever lay down in defeat to never rise again. All of you here are Champions, and your torch, with its eternal flame, will, in time, offer you the clarity you need to reach that spring of tolerance, appreciation, and regard.
Our heart is a tricky thing. It drives us with an unknown, internal force with a complete disregard for the rational. Some of us have a heart of glass, and some of us of stone. The heart of glass is at once clear and transparent. It hides nothing and is innocent and pure. We love fully and trust completely and when betrayed, our glass pane to our soul is shattered. The heart of stone is jaded and shadowed. It is a consequence of many things including isolation, heartache and pessimism. We see only the darkness in the world, and close ourselves, shielded from the potential of pain. My distant, unknown friends, I have stood here with you, a brilliant crystal, a broken shard, and a rigid stone.
I am here tonight because of those of you that hold the heart between glass and stone. You with a noble, kind heart, you shine in this world, a brilliant beacon for those around you who need you most. Your compassion and simple care for others repairs the broken and warms the cold. Trust me, I know. The trivial question of “How are you doing” from many of you has offered me the greatest warmth when my life felt all too bitter. The basic act of sitting beside me dispelled my helpless sense of isolation. Your gentle smile reminded me I was loved when I felt lost and unwanted. My unspoken, hidden friends, your kindness moves this world. Never let it be lost or forgotten and may this world all too filled with differences, discord, and malice shift again in the direction of love, understanding, and progress.
In these next few years you will find yourself. You will develop an identity entirely dependent on the choices you make alone in your new found freedom in adulthood. Think carefully about the person you want to be - thoughtful, curious, and kind. Define yourself and know who you are. Don’t dare to allow someone else to tell you who you are meant to be. Along your path you will be challenged, tested, and questioned, growing in a world of immense complexity filled with genuine struggles. Sometimes we may want to give in. But remember this, you cannot dispel darkness by feeding it. Stay bright and true, and people will follow you.
Class of 2023, it has been my greatest honor growing and learning beside you. Going through high school, we have defined what it means to be a Champion charger. We are passionate musicians, dedicated athletes, creative artists, ambitious leaders, curious learners, and loyal friends. We are Covid kids, state champions, water gun ninjas, grilled cheese Wednesday connoisseurs, Dunkin and Starbucks aficionados, and hardcore swifties. While I deeply appreciate this school, it has kept us here too long. With all my love, get out of here and go show this world what you’ve got!
Thank you.
Comment
Comments