Braves Bid Farewell to Their 'Second Home'

Nathan LaBarba says the Indian Hills Class of 2010's experience can be summed up in one word: glasses.

In 2006, as bright-eyed freshmen, the students put on their "glasses" for the first time as they began to gain some perspective of the high school experience. On Thursday, before an auditorium of hundreds, the students took off those glasses, as the Class of 2010 received their diplomas at the 45th Indian Hills commencement.

LaBarba, the Student Council president, was one of several speakers to ruminate on the meaning of the milestone, as the seniors prepare to leave their childhoods behind and take that brave next step toward adulthood. 

"Who will each of us become?," LaBarba asked. While each individual student would be hard-pressed to answer such a question, they're prepared to take on the task of finding out.

"Indian Hills has set us all on our way," he said.

The threat of thunderstorms moved the graduation indoors, with family and friends spilling out of the Indian Hills auditorium and an overflow crowd of students and others watching the proceedings via video in the gymnasium. Within the sweaty confines of the auditorium, speaker after speaker celebrated the accomplishments of a class that made teachers and administrators proud.

"You've earned respect at the local, county, state and federal levels ...(and) set a standard that will be quite hard to follow," said Principal Al Evangelista. 

While the commencement signaled the end of their high school careers, the students were encouraged to think of graduation as a beginning.

Superintendent Dr. C. Lauren Schoen reminded the students that as doors close, others open. "You have been prepared well for the future," she said. "You have all that it takes to be whatever you want to be."

Evangelista said graduation was "not the end, only a passing" en route to an exciting journey.

Board of Education President Wayne Peterson made light of the annual ritual of commencement speeches, preferring to leave the students with a few borrowed words of wisdom.

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there," said Peterson, by way of Will Rogers, while telling the students that they can always change "tracks" as they go through life. He quoted famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden to deliver the message that education is a lifelong process: "It is what you learn after you learn it all that counts."

As the students progressed through high school, their experiences were marked by a rapidly changing nation and world. LaBarba noted starting high school near the fifth anniversary of 9/11; as they came of age, the recession hit, swine flu spread, President Obama was elected and Haiti was decimated by an earthquake. As students, the Class of 2010 could sit and learn as the world changed, perhaps even volunteer their time. But soon enough, the students will be "pursuing noble endeavors so that one day we can be the ones determining things," LaBarba said.

They won't forget their time at Indian Hills, though. "This place will always be a second home," he said.

The staff won't soon forget the Class of 2010, either.

"We will miss you," Schoen said.