Class Shares ‘Forever Bond As Blue Devils’
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There were smiling faces and flying caps as the graduates of Water Valley High School Class of 2023 celebrated at the conclusion of the commencement Thursday night at Bobby Clark Field.
WATER VALLEY – Clear skies and perfect temperature made for a perfect commencement ceremony at Bobby Clark Field Thursday night as 69 graduates crossed the stage to receive diplomas. Class
Historian Peyton Ferguson shared highlights during the commencement, explaining that 13 years ago the Class of 2023 started with 116 kindergarteners at Davidson Elementary School.
“Forty-one of those are here tonight including Peyton Griffin, who is with us in spirit,” Ferguson said. “Although we have lost friends along the way, we have gained new ones that make up the 69 graduates.”
Ferguson’s highlights continued with a memory from each grade. In first grade, there was the “very popular nap time,” he told the crowd in the stadium. In third grade, the fire drills became real after a teacher’s laptop started smoking. Rubber-bands were banned in the fourth grade. Bri Parrish broke her arm in the sixth grade.
“Miraculously we made it to junior high,” the class historian noted.
In eight grade, the group met Coach Dexter Ross.
“We learned what a real essay should look like – repeatedly. What a pop quiz looked like and we learned Rossology,” Ferguson added.
The storyline continued with an extended spring break their freshman year as a global pandemic ended school abruptly. The next year will live in memory with masks and every-other-week quarantines before life returned to normal during the group’s junior and senior years.
“But this is only the beginning, your future is so bright and there is a whole world full of opportunities for you to seize,” Chloe Clement told her classmates in her valedictory address.
“We have the rest of our lives in front of us, and I know the best is yet to come. Although we are leaving Water Valley High School once and for all, I know we are not leaving one another. We will forever share the bond of being Blue Devils. And I can say with confidence nothing is sweeter than that,” Clement said. “Spending high school with each of you have been some of the best years of my life.”
