Shadows were already starting to lengthen across the campus of University High School early Friday evening when seniors Emma Hennessey and Kael Heinz stopped their stride.
The friends, who had been walking around the grounds, took one more second, to take one more selfie, next to the building that had been their home for the past four years.
“Had,” as in past tense.
Or past tense, soon-to-be, anyway.
“Graduation,” Emma said. “Finally.”
“That didn’t take long, huh?” Kael asked.
Then both alums, soon-to-be, shook their heads no – and laughed.
Living through an unprecedented global pandemic has a way of making things go really slow, they said.
“Yeah,” Kael said, “we’re gonna have some great stories to tell at the reunion.”
The mellow evening, meanwhile, was the final good story in the tale of University High’s Class of 2023, as it prepared to go forth in commencement exercises on the turf of Mylan Pharmaceuticals Stadium.
Principal Kim Greene counted 337 Hawks in all, making it the largest senior class on record, she said.
A class, she said, shaped both by COVID and character.
“They’re good kids,” she said, before the start of the ceremonies.
“I’m anxious to see what they accomplish, and what they’ll be bring from their experiences of the past four years.”
What they brought on this night was a full house.
The bleachers were shoulder-to-shoulder and buzzing.
Happy chatter from parents and other guests intermingled with Tony Bennett playing over the sound system and the UHS Band turning up on the field.
Graduates snaked in from either side of the field to take their seats right on the Hawk logo at the 50-yard-line.
Parents stretched, craned and waved – as they hoped to catch the eyes of their matriculating offspring who were advancing pretty quickly through their lives and times – no matter Emma and Kael said.
And fun, family moments abounded.
“There she is,” one dad said, as he captured his daughter on cellphone video during the procession.
She answered with a royal wave that would have prompted King Charles to look twice.
Another mom whooped as her son sauntered in – as only teenaged boys can saunter.
“I love you!” she sang out.
“Get a haircut!” her other son – the senior’s little brother – added to the chorus.
The class’s president Garner Hart said in his remarks he could just remember how “giant” the seniors then seemed when he first regarded them as a freshman four years ago.
“And now we’re here. And we did it.”
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