The Graduation commencement ceremony is one of the biggest accomplishments of your high school career and is what all of your hard work leads up to.

Getting your diploma isn’t easy, but the class of 2022 did just that on Jun.4.

The ceremony was held at the Whiting after 2 years of having it on the football field because of COVID.

Valedictorian Lauren Rice was the speaker chosen to represent the class of 2022 this year.

She went through a tough audition process with 5 of her other classmates.

She felt honored that she was chosen and appreciated the opportunity greatly. The speech she gave was beautifully written and struck emotion within a lot of people.

Former senior Brodie Dustin stated that he really enjoyed the speech and shed tears after. 

“Lauren has always been such an amazing writer, so I’m really glad she was chosen to speak for our class and I won’t lie, it made me cry,” said Dustin.

While I sat down with Rice, she told me how she was nervous at first, but somehow all of her worries went away.

Rice said she hadn’t planned on making it a sad speech and more so empowering, but it ended up that way after she discovered an amazing quote.

“I wasn’t trying to make people cry until I found the Winnie and the Pooh quote,” stated Rice.

With that being said, congratulations to the class of 2022. The world is your playground, so do what your heart desires.