Graduation comes with gratitude for La Cañada High

Summoning a collective spirit of gratitude — for family, faculty and friendships forged — La Cañada High School’s Class of 2015 bid farewell Friday to the school that provided a temporary backdrop for what will become lifelong memories.

A graduating class of 350 students strong took their seats on the football field as shadows lengthened under a setting sun. In the bleachers above, parents and loved ones clamored to see or snap photos of their grad from inside the mix of cardinal and gold gowns and regalia.

PHOTOS: La Cañada High Class of 2015 commencement ceremony

Occasional air-horn barks and vuvuzela bellows punctuated the evening’s speeches as mortar boards decorated with fringe, figurines and sequined felt, spelling out clever quips (“C.U. Never”) or colleges of choice (from PCC to MIT) provided commensurate visual distraction.

In his welcoming remarks, Class President Todd Murray asked fellow Spartans to think back to the last time they had to worry about their safety, or where their next meal would come from.

“I’ve never had these feelings. I doubt many of you have either, and for that I’m extremely grateful,” Murray said. “I’m so thankful for the opportunities (we’ve) been given at this school, and this town, and don’t know where we’d be without them.”

Senior Grayson Gordon recalled how far he’d come since that first day of freshman year when, with purple hair, a fedora and a T-shirt reading “Pugs, not drugs,” he became a high-schooler.

“Thrown into this fishbowl together, we may not have always gotten along, but the impact we’ve had on each other is undeniable,” Gordon said. “More often than not, what dragged us out of bed and carried us to school was the people.”

Now is an opportunity for grads to see the past four years for what they really were, Gordon added — a gift.

LCHS Principal Ian McFeat carried on the message of gratitude, acknowledging the important ritual of commencement and everyone who made it possible.

“Graduation is the most important day in the life of a high school,” he said. “It is a day that we, as a community, recognize years of hard work and study. It is also a day to say thanks.”

McFeat recounted the many successes of the Class of 2015, switching out his mortar board for a Spartans cap before enumerating their achievements. In addition to accepting a total of $2.13 million in scholarships, seniors earned an average GPA of 3.67, with the top scorer netting an impressive 4.75. The class also helped raise more than $30,000 for charitable groups and organizations.

“Yes, this is an accomplished class,” McFeat emphasized.

After the conferring of diplomas and the obligatory cap toss, friends and families rushed from the bleachers onto the field to find and congratulate the honorees. Graduate David Jin criss-crossed the turf in search of his parents and grandparents, careful lest the 3-D decoration fixed to the top of his cap became a casualty to a wayward elbow or outflung arm.

The intricately crafted design, created using a 3-D printer in the school’s engineering room, was of a red phoenix — the logo University of Chicago, where Jin hopes to work toward a double major in physics and economics.

With grad night beckoning, Jin admitted thinking about his impending adulthood was a little surreal, considering only yesterday he was technically still a child.

“A few days ago, I was asking (permission) to go to the bathroom, and now I’m an adult,” he laughed. “I guess there’s sort of a learning curve to that.”

Nearby, Natalia Dudek checked in with mom Anna and older sister Karolina, who’d come from her junior year at UCLA to attend Dudek’s graduation and their little sister Aleksandra’s promotion from the school’s eighth-grade class earlier that day.

Dudek will join Karolina at UCLA in the fall, where she plans to study biology as part of a pre-med degree. Though she was looking forward to the evening’s imminent celebrations, including grad night, Dudek felt wistful at the thought her La Cañada High School days would soon be behind her.

“I’m sad,” Dudek said, confessing to tearing up during the commencement remarks. “I don’t want it to end.”