They were the largest class in their school’s history. They had the highest GPA and the highest average SAT scores. There were bubbles. Some of them wore flip-flops.
Yes, it was a good day to be a member of the Potomac Falls High School class of 2004.
As the 379 senior Panthers filed onto the floor of the Patriot Center at George Mason University on June 16, their relatives pointed and hollered, filling the dome with the sound of their cheers and the flash of their cameras.
"I'm certainly glad to see such a resounding and exciting group," principal E. Wayne Griffith said when he took the stage. Griffith was also commencing himself that night — into retirement — after four decades in Loudoun County schools.
"The class of 2004 is very special for me as my last graduating class," he said. "Tonight we are here to celebrate their accomplishments. It is truly the beginning of the rest of their lives."
WITH THAT, the evening got underway. The Potomac Falls High School Symphonic Band performed the national anthem. Superintendent Edgar Hatrick quoted longtime Loudoun school administrator Kenneth Culbert, who passed away earlier this year, "Do some good. Become a better son, daughter, sister, brother and community leader. Represent yourself well on a daily basis." And valedictorian Yassaman Pourkazemi brought props.
"I would like to take this opportunity to pronounce myself the queen of perfection," she said as she removed her purple mortarboard and replaced it with a shiny crown.
"That was a huge lie, in case you couldn't tell," she added after doffing the crown.
After all the pressures of school and extracurricular activities for the entirety of their young lives, Pourkazemi said, the demand to be flawless had become too much.
"Let us break that image of perfect once and for all," she said. "Society should not dictate our life." She then stomped on a small mirror to illustrate her point.
And in a twist on an old commencement speaker standby, Pourkazemi paraphrased Robert Frost’s oft-misinterpreted poem.
"Two road diverged in a yellow wood, and I took the one less traveled by," she said, "and it sucked."
She concluded that the rocky road was the right one after all. "That's what it takes to have success in life."
FOR THE GRAND FINALE, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) made a bold statement.
"I believe most of you are going to live to be 100 years or more," the smiling Hoosier told the graduates, who included his grandson Taylor. "That can be exciting or daunting."
He recalled a recent conversation with four soldiers, all of whom had debilitating injuries. One had lost half a leg, but planned to run a marathon next year. None of the soldiers, Lugar said, considered their wounds life changing for the worse.
So what should the class of 2004 do with those 100 years?
"The quality of those years is of the essence," Lugar said. "It will come down to a sense of optimism. It will come down to religious faith."
He ended with these words: "I rejoice in the lives that you are going to have."
One at a time, the seniors strode across the stage, accepted their diplomas and walked off as graduates of the Potomac Falls High School class of 2004.