Emotions high at Glendale High School graduation

A happy face made of yellow masking tape topped Roselynn Pedroza’s red cap at Glendale High School’s graduation Tuesday night.

It was a symbol of her excitement, but also a marker for her family to pick her out of the roughly 650 other seniors donning graduation attire of red and black, the school’s colors.

PHOTOS: Glendale High School graduation

As her mother took pictures with an iPad covered with a Hello Kitty face, she cautioned Roselynn not to cry before joining her classmates on Moyse Field.

“I’ll try not to,” said the 17-year-old headed for Pasadena City College.

Roselynn wasn’t the only student feeling emotional. Before the ceremony — which was attended by thousands of family members and well-wishers — many graduates said senior year flew by too fast, that they’d miss their friends and that they were worried about tackling the extra responsibilities that awaited them.

But despite the challenges ahead, salutatorian Ani Avoundjian said during her speech that her fellow classmates are poised to succeed.

“Today we are ready to take on the world,” she said.

Earlier that year, the seniors had already succeeded in beating out other classes in several events during an annual school-wide competition known as the Oratorical assembly. They even won the spirit award for singing school chants the loudest.

The seniors also raised so much money during their graduation fundraisers this year that they could afford free class shirts and cannons that would shoot out black and red metallic streamers at the end of the ceremony — a $1,500 expense that had been cut for several years due budget restrictions.

In her speech, senior class President Christine Kabayan said she hoped that when her classmates met again for their 10-year reunion, their school spirit would still be alive.

“I hope we’re still proud to call ourselves graduates of the class of 2013,” she said.

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Follow Brittany Levine on Google+ and on Twitter: @brittanylevine.

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