"Few moments in our lives mark our ends and our beginnings more than high school graduation. For more than a decade our children climb that ladder, then in the blink of an eye, with one short stroll across a stage, they find themselves poised at the end of an improbably high diving board.  Where they'll land, how big a splash they'll make, who they will become as they swim through life ... nobody knows, least of all their parents.  Child psychologists tell us that we're not rearing kids, we're raising adults, that it's the parents' duty not to make their children happy but rather to arm them with tools so they can forge their own way through life.

"A couple of years ago I was one of those parents in Thalia Mara Hall, filled with equal parts anticipation and dread as my lad hoofed it across the stage, as he received his diploma and shook hands with the superintendent and walked not back to his seat, but into his future.

"I do not know how it is that we get to this point. Time is a curious mechanism, at once with us and yet beyond us, and many of us reach a stage in life when we feel we're swimming against the current, trying to slow things down, to catch our breaths, to get a grip on a reality that's as slippery as dew-drenched grass.  As those soon-to-be adults take their place on that diving board this month, teetering toward futures no one can foretell, I see my not-so-little man, now down to just a single year left in high school, moving inexorably toward that ladder that will take him up and out, and I am proud of him and fear for him. I'm confident and quivering, exhilarated and petrified.

"I am a parent.  And the river of emotions runs ever so deep."  - Orley Hood - May 20th, 2007

If you asked older people the most important days of their lives they will say things such as their wedding day, the day their children were born,  the day their children got married, and so on.  One of those days is also the day they proudly watched their children walk the aisle and get a diploma - usually their high school diploma. New high school  graduates may not yet understand but parents know that the march to the high school diploma is one of the most important days of their lives - mainly because it is an elegant and dignified way of telling their parents, "I am a grown up now with all the privileges and responsibilities that being an adult implies.  I can make my own decisions about college, majors, and careers and have direction in my new life.  But I still love you and thank you for all you have sacrificed for me to get me to this point."   Graduation is very tough on adults because  they go to the ceremony as parents and they come home as contemporaries.  As for the students, they cannot understand life without high school.  The ones that attended 4-K at MHS have spent a full three quarters of their lives learning and growing up on the hill.  As a group, this class has spent a total of 428 years at MHS. Also, a new school record was set for the most scholarship money offered to a single class this year.  As of mid May this class was offered more than $950,000 in scholarships. (Update: this class eclipsed $1 million in scholarships by Aug, 2007.)

We are so proud of the Class of 2007 and want the world to be introduced to the following Magnolia Heights graduates:

(mouse over for casual picture)

Katie Barham plans to attend Rhodes and major in International Studies.

Johnathon Faught plans to attend the University of Arkansas Honors College and major in Law.

Jonathon Montgomery plans to attend Northwest and major in Agriculture.

Jordan Bell plans to attend Ole Miss and major in Banking and Finance.

Natalie Troutt plans to attend Ole Miss and major in Psychology.

Hannah Blankenship plans to attend Northwest and is undecided in her studies.

Samuel Hong plans to attend Purdue and major in Engineering.

Audrey Gardner plans to attend Northwest and major in Accounting.

 

 

Justin Williams plans to attend Ole Miss and major in Business.

Daniel Sanford plans to attend Mississippi State and major in Wildlife Biology.

Seth Burris plans to attend Mississippi State and major in Landscaping.

Wil Harris plans to attend Northwest and major in Civil Engineering.

 

 

Pete Webb plans to attend Mississippi State and major in Engineering.

 

 

 

Justin Griffin plans to enlist in the Navy and join the Amphibious Construction Battalion.

Colton Chambers plans to attend Northwest and major in Criminal justice.

 

 

Rebecca Darby plans to attend Northwest and is undecided in her studies.

Erica Womack plans to attend Northwest and is undecided in her studies.

T.J. Wiggins plans to attend Northwest and major in civil engineering.

Bryan Taylor plans to attend Ole Miss and major in Pre-pharmacy.

Addison Lawrence plans to attend Mississippi State and major in Pre-dentistry.

 

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But I'm not gonna cry, no
Not one sad or happy tear
I've waited my whole life
Now I'm gonna fly right outta here

It's a bittersweet goodbye, but I'm not gonna cry

Friday night, football games,
First loves and first heartbreaks,
It didn't matter who won or lost,
Only how we played,
Memories as good as gold,
Tearin' up those mountain roads,
Racin' out 53, to old Georgetown,
Sure we made a little trouble,
But learned from every mistake,
So there's no regret,
We've done the best we could

So I'm not gonna cry, no
Not one sad or happy tear
I've waited my whole life
Now I'm gonna fly right outta here
These have been the best years of my life
So I'm not gonna cry

Its been a lonely, winding journey
And we've lost a few along the way
Still we've hung in there through the tribulations
Now its time to celebrate
It's our graduation day

So I'm not gonna cry
Not one sad or happy tear
I've waited my whole life
So I'm gonna fly right outta here

This has been the best day of my life, so I'm not gonna cry

It's a bittersweet goodbye, I'm not gonna cry.

 

 

 

Barn Party 2006