LHS Class of 2023 Graduates
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Members of the La Grange senior class wave to the crowd after they had all received their diplomas Thursday. Photo by Jeff Wick -
The graduates throw their caps into the air at the conclusion of Thursday’s ceremony.
As the sun set behind Leopard Stadium Thursday 135 seniors of the La Grange High School Class of 2023 received their diplomas.
These were kids who had such a strange start to their high school careers, with COVID cutting short their freshmen year, but things quickly returned to normal for this group – all leading up to Thursday’s ceremony, witnessed by thousands at the stadium.
For the first time, the top two grads were guaranteed featured speeches at the ceremony (previously, students interested in speaking were randomly selected for roles in the ceremony) and these inaugural speeches did not disappoint.“Twelve years of work and joy are coming to an end tonight ... The days were long but the weeks flew by ... This is our moment,” said Kylee Kelley as part of her speech as valedictorian.
Salutatorian Campbell Youens told the crowd she tried to balance her speech between her classmates’ wishes for her to keep it short and her family’s wishes to keep it funny.
“While we were procrastinating, we were discovering who we were,” she told her fellow graduates.
The graduation address was given by best-selling author and public speaker Stephen Mackey of Blanco.
His speech focused on the theme “Character Wins.”
“Character outlasts talent,” he said. “We live in a world obsessed with talent, but your character is your foundation.”
Mackey talked about his own youth in East Texas, being born biracial to a teen mother and raised by grandparents.
“It takes a village to raise a child. You look into these stands and you see a great village around you .... The game of life is hard, but you are worth the work.”
After Mackey’s speech, High School superintendent John Pineda handed out the diplomas.
Lauren Bull gave the closing remarks saying, “Take a look around. This is a moment in time we will never get back ... Our show is not over yet. We have many more parts to play.”
As the La Grange High School band played them off, the graduates then converged at midfield to throw their hats skyward. Then that “village” that Mackey referenced spilled out of the stands with flowers and balloons and hugs for the Class of 2023.