Crescenta Valley grads say goodbye

About 750 students graduated from Crescenta Valley High on Tuesday evening, and senior Neil Cho was passing out new pennies to fellow classmates as part of one last prank.

PHOTOS: 2014 Crescenta Valley High School graduation

Minutes before the ceremony began, he gave students around him one penny each, with instructions to give the penny to Principal Linda Junge every time they were to shake her hand on the stage.

“She’s going to have seven dollars and fifty cents,” he said. “There are seven hundred and fifty of us.”

But pranks aside, Cho said that the big day hadn’t quite sunk in for him just yet.

“I feel like it’s going to be a big change, but at the same time, not really because I’ll wake up tomorrow morning doing the same thing. Until I go to college, I feel like it’s going to be the same,” Cho said.

In the fall, he’ll attend the University of Richmond in Virginia to study business.

Fellow senior Farrah Dar was having a hard time believing graduation day had arrived.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet, even with the cap and gown on,” she said.

But for her friend Tiffany Garren, graduation was a long time coming, especially in the recent weeks leading to the end of the school year.

“The last couple weeks of school — we’ve just been waiting for this day,” Garren said.

Both friends said they were looking forward to attending college. In the fall, Garren plans to attend Asuza Pacific while Dar will head to Cal State Long Beach.

Classmate Vaheh Gaspar is still uncertain where he will attend school and what he will choose to study.

On Tuesday, he was closing a chapter on the last four years. He was part of the school’s yearbook club and completed over 100 service hours in the community through Key Club.

“I feel like I’m taking a step forward in life, but at the same time, I’m sad I’m not going to see all these people that were a big part of my life for so long,” Gaspar said.

When Crescenta Valley’s senior class president took the podium, Esther Park told the class of 2014 that they would have to come to terms with saying goodbye to classmates.

She then told everyone in attendance that there would be plenty to come from the new graduates.

“People say the greatest generation has come and gone. But they’re wrong,” she said. “They haven’t seen us.”

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Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.

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