Schools

'The Edge of Maturity' – Coronado High's Class of 2013 Is on Its Way

Graduates celebrated with brains, beach balls and the bravery of one young woman who had a surprise for everyone.

For coverage of the beginning of the ceremony, with mentions of top award winners and video of the processional, see Coronado High's Class of 2013 Begins March to Future.

Originally posted at 3:20 a.m. Thursday.


Coronado High School's top grads – the valedictorian, the salutatorians – made sure to quote the greats Wednesday as they said goodbye to their most recent educational home. There was F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cicero, and bless, even a little Calvin and Hobbes.

Valedictorian Wright Smith noted that he and his fellow 261 graduates were enjoying “this last night of high school” before embarking on adventures across the country and perhaps even abroad. 

But he also showed an admirable amount of wisdom in pointing out that a diploma, while a symbol of both an ending and a beginning, does not necessarily mean one is grown up.

“We're standing on the edge of maturity – at least our parents hope so,” he said, to laughter.

Earlier, principal Karl Mueller had to put on his tough guy hat, simply drawing out the word “seniors” to lightly chide his giddy group of pre-graduates as they began bouncing about beach balls even as the ceremony had barely begun.

Showing such spirit on the eve of a major milestone is no surprise. Members of the CHS Class of 2013 had much to celebrate Wednesday, from the symbolic meaning of the walk to get their their diplomas to the literal victory of one of their classmates making that walk most unexpectedly.

Quinn Waitley, who generally must use a wheelchair, worked for some time practicing on a walker so she could make her way to pick up her diploma on her own two feet. She did so with minimal assistance from Mueller and teacher Eric Rempe, and to wild applause from her classmates and hundreds of their loved ones.

She also was part of a unique crew – she and her sisters, Bailey, Maddy and Sydney, all 18, are quadruplets, perhaps the first to ever graduate from CHS, vice principal Jenny Moore said.

Will that be what distinguishes the Class of 2013's ceremony – seeing a remarkable walk? Having four sisters graduate at once? Or perhaps it was hearing the keynote speaker, Mayor Casey Tanaka – who earned his CHS diploma 19 years ago – frankly discuss the abuse he suffered at the hands of his birth father? 

Salutatorian Ryan Halvorson wondered himself what might make his graduation, the 98th in CHS's history, stand out someday. After all, he reasoned, “nobody wants to be just another one out of 100.”

The sentiments, however, whether expressed at a Coronado commencement in 2013 or at some other point in the distant past, are often the same. The immediate path is relatively certain, the future, fascinating and full of promise but ultimately unknown. 

“I hope each of you has an amazing summer,” he concluded. “And a successful life.”



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