(PHOTOS) East High School 2023 ceremony reminds graduates to keep learning, growing

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Planning for a future after high school can be stressful. Self-doubt, anxieties and insecurities can plague the minds of young graduates. That’s why East High School’s student body president Kooper Taylor wants the class of 2023 to block out those negative thoughts.

“This uncertainty, this anxiousness, the doubts that we all have about ourselves, it’s all noise,” Taylor said. “You have to block out the noise and remember who you are and hold yourself accountable to the future you are walking towards.”

She offered this advice during East High’s graduation this morning at Frontier Park, where 320 Thunderbirds, dressed head to toe in light blue caps and gowns, celebrated their educational milestone.

Like Taylor, student speaker Patrick Coggin assured his peers that everyone makes mistakes. What they should focus on, he said, is finding a way to learn from their failures.

“Let’s be honest with ourselves, we have no idea what we are doing with our lives,” he said during the ceremony. “While we might be focusing on our very last moments in high school, and although we don’t always like to admit it, it will always be through our failures and missteps that brought us here and will continue to learn and grow.”

Student Speaker Danielle Schulz echoed a similar statement.

“The hardest paths lead to the most fulfilling and beautiful destinations,” she said during the ceremony.