My personal tribute to the class of 2004 (except for the jocks and the pretty people... you mooch off of the valuable people's success).

Graduation night: the time where we recognize our seniors for their hard work and send them on their way into the great world to accomplish things us laypeople can only dream of. But that's only the hour or so following the treacherous activities of the faculty, staff, and all of the "important dignitaries" at the event. Yes, I'll admit that the event flowed smoothly and that it mostly went off without a hitch, but sometimes, you must consider the small things.

Take, for example, the excellent "Class of 2004 Memory Video". While it was a cute little endeavor, it lacked a certain something... let's call it EQUAL REPRESENTATION. Now, I realize that athletics are extremely important to LCHS and that it plays a major part in the history of our school, but please, do 10 of the 15 minutes alotted to the time of the video have to be of our ever-popular and well-loved sports teams? One must ask exactly how much recognition is necessary for our lovely athletes who have probably had so many concussions that they won't even remember graduation. But fortunately, the video was not dedicated in full to our athletes. Oh no, the other 5 minutes were of the pretty people (aka: less athletic, but still popular).

Though it wasn't agony to sit through the banal presentation, the absolute monstrous lack of verbal skills on the part of our darling administrators made the night a grimace-fest for all to enjoy. The mispronounciation of the names of every foreign exchange student and the occasional mispronunciation of the less popular, but local, inidividuals kept me in pain throughout the night. You'd think that there would be some pre-planning before such a huge event. But no, that never crossed the minds of our more prominent administrators. Why would someone take the time to look through the list of graduates, pick out the difficult names, and be trained on the pronunciation when they could just take the easy road and butcher a perfectly good name, causing humiliation to those whom the name belongs.

In the end, graduation turned out to be the successful event that it always turns out to be: laughter, music, and random beach balls being thrown to the chagrin of the staff. Consider this article my tribute to the deserving individuals of the class of 2004. You have been my friends and my inspirations for many many years, and I hope that the future brings you only happiness. Class of 2004, you did it.