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LAND O'LAKES - Family trumped frivolity Friday night at Land O'Lakes High School's ceremonial send-off of its 353 graduates.
The rows of navy-blue-gowned graduates still batted a couple beach balls. A few tassels were tossed before the roll call of students. An air horn or two blared from the bleachers.
But kinship was king. Nathan Weinberg, valedictorian of the International Baccalaureate program based at the school, used his address to thank a very special lady who had flown in from New York for graduation.
"Everyone give it up for that hottie in the green sweater, my grandma Thelma," said Weinberg, who's off to Boston University to study aerospace engineering.
Jessica Long, the student council president and and one of the evening's main speakers, didn't have far to turn to thank her parents.
Her father, Pasco County schools superintendent John Long, sat behind his daughter on the platform at the school football stadium, wrapped in a professorial gown.
Jessica toured memory lane, from elementary to high school, recounting their infatuation with boy bands and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the school's ban on flip flops and the imposition of ID badges.
"In the immortal words of Billy Madison," Jessica said, quoting a comedy starring Adam Sandler, "Yahoo for us, yahoo for school!"'
Class salutatorian Ramona Valenzuela, bound for Florida International University next fall to study marine biology, thanked her immigrant grandparents.
They worked hard at low-end jobs, including stints in a tortilla factory, so that she, with uncalloused hands, might devote herself to her studies, Valenzuela said.
In the opening address of the evening, graduate Sarah Scruggs twice quoted tracts from the Bible.
Weinberg later joined Scruggs in thanking God for life's blessings. "I don't think he ever gets enough credit for that," Weinberg said.
It was for principal Ray Bonti to remind everyone how special the Class of 2003 was.
He praised the two National Merit Scholarship finalists, the state champion girls soccer team and the 193 graduates who qualified for a Florida Bright Futures Scholarship.
"That is truly amazing," Bonti told a stadium crowd that was so large the school ran out of commencement programs.
The school's highest scoring scholar, valedictorian Bryan Gibbs, quoted Roman orator Cicero, rap music star Eminem and children's book author Dr. Seuss. The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado is Gibb's destination next year.
As a blizzard of bugs raged round the stadium lights and just a hint of fading sunlight colored the western horizon, Gibbs nudged his classmates into adulthood.
"We must no longer measure our achievements as high schoolers," he said, "but as men and women of the world."