Tupelo High School honors Class of 2022 graduates
May 21—TUPELO — Tupelo High School honored its Class of 2022 graduates during a ceremony Friday evening at the BancorpSouth Arena.
The school's 446 graduates filed into the auditorium as the THS Wind Symphony performed "Pomp and Circumstance."
THS senior Sarah Ann Buzzell welcomed the crowd, thanking parents, teachers and everyone else who contributed to the lives and success of Friday night's graduates.
She reminded the crowd that for the class of 2022, the journey through high school was not easy. Throughout many uncertainties, they held strong as a student body.
"Tupelo, for so many of us, is home," Buzzell said. "It has provided us with hope, creativity and hospitality. Wherever we end up in the future, we'll look back on Tupelo for its community and opportunity."
Each year, THS's commencement speaker is a student selected by school administrators and teachers from anonymous pitches submitted by seniors. The 2022 senior selected to speak during this year's ceremony was Eron Iva Hendrix.
Hendrix's speech, inspired by the high school's Golden Wave mascot, opened with a description of waves and what it means to be one.
"As we leave Tupelo High School, we must remember that we are the wave," Hendrix said. "We have cheered it at our sporting events, we have worn it on our clothes, we have used it in our social media. But being a wave is more than just these things. For us, it's what's brought us together."
Despite missing the latter half of their sophomore year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and being a part of history in the making, Hendrix insisted that moment would not define the Class of 2022.
"If we let it, that would be our only story," Hendrix said. "But we must leave here tonight and remember that our story of COVID is not the only story we have to tell. We must make our story something more than the pandemic that burdened us."
She walked the crowd through a list of shared experiences between the seniors — from getting lost in Mississippi's largest high school on the first day of class to losing their voices cheering at sporting events.
"Waves don't die, but they do change shape and direction," Hendrix said. "We will leave today to create new stories full of laughter, smiles and tears. We must remember to find the good in all things, to fight injustice, to stand up to what is right and to become leaders in our community, our state, our country and our world."
Prior to the awarding of diplomas, valedictorian Nicol Milev and salutatorian Bowen Mansell were recognized by Principal Art Dobbs.
Friday night was Dobbs' final graduation ceremony as Tupelo High's principal. In March, he announced that he would step down following the 2021-22 school year to take on a district-level position, serving as Tupelo Public School District's executive director of Educational Enhancement and Workforce Development.
"You have truly expanded the rich tradition of excellency at Tupelo High School," Tupelo Superintendent Dr. Rob Picou told students, declaring the Class of 2022 graduates of THS.
Following the presentation of diplomas, the ceremony concluded with graduates throwing their caps into the air.
At that moment, as Hendrix said in her speech, the Tupelo High School Class of 2022 said goodbye to the past four years, their childhoods and all the things they've smiled, laughed and cried over together.
"We say hello to the years to come," Hendrix said, just minutes prior to the cap toss. "Then we go our separate ways. To college, to the workforce, to make this world that we live in our own."
"But for one more time," she said, "I stand here and I say, 'Go wave.'"
