By Eleni Himaras
reporter@ltview
The Lake Travis High School Class of 2009 had every right to do a bit of gloating at last week’s graduation ceremony, sound with the knowledge that they had accomplished more in academia, sports, the arts, and every other facet of student life than any class before them.

“This class is undoubtedly the most successful class in the history of Lake Travis,” LTHS Principal Kim Brents beamed, reading off a laundry list of state and national titles along with staggering statistics like the fact that the senior class had more than 9,000 hours of combined community service.
Serving her first year in the position, Brents said it seemed like the school year had just begun the day before.
“To many of you parents, it probably seems like you were just dropping them off at kindergarten. And for many of you seniors, this year has probably seemed like an eternity,” she said.
While the overall feeling of the night was unbridled pride, various speakers used different paths to leave their final mark on the school including humor, famous quotes and stark honesty.
To the mild horror of many of the staff, Valedictorian Maria Petty opened her speech saying, “Last week I gave Principal Brents a copy of the speech I was supposed to read tonight. That is not the speech I’m going to be reading.”
She discussed her internal battle over showing up to the graduation ceremony at all, admitting that she had to take three different types of medication to manage her clinical depression.
“A lot of times people who are depressed focus too much on the past or future,” she said. “You beat yourself up about the stupid thing you said yesterday… or worry about what could happen tomorrow.”
Petty decided to take the night to focus only on the present moment.
“As long as you’re focused on the past or the future, you’re not focused on what’s happening right now. Congratulations students, pat yourselves on the back because it is wonderful what is going on right here, right now,” she said.
Salutatorian Mei Liu kept the crowd of graduates and their families laughing throughout her speech opening with a request that her fellow students be proud of her method of speech writing.
“I started writing this speech at 10 p.m. the day before it was due,” she said, then asked a simple question. “How am I so sure that the class of ‘09 rocks harder than any class to set foot on LT soil?”
She held up two striking examples of her classmates, Garrett Gilbert and Brian Wilson. Reading entries from Gilbert’s Wikipedia page, she detailed his unequaled accomplishments on and off the football field. As for Wilson, she said, “I’ve never encountered someone so intelligent on every topic there is,” but added that he was still waiting on his Wikipedia entry.
Finally, she laughed, “We had a helicopter, and you didn’t,” referring to a recent party at a Bee Cave home where a DPS helicopter showed up to give local police backup.
Student Council President Samuel Shimek and Senior Class President Sarah Broeker both found inspiration for their speeches from famous men.
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom,” Shimek said, quoting Thomas Jefferson.
He encouraged students to not let their accomplishments from the past overshadow their future but to take the time and find out truly who they are and what they are capable to fling themselves over the bar that has been “set higher than ever before.”
Broeker’s inspiration came from an unlikely location – the fortune cookie at the end of a recent meal.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” she said, thanking Confucius for the wisdom.
Detailing the increasingly longer strides she and her fellow classmates had taken from kindergarten up through their senior year, she said that they were ready for their biggest step of all because, “Even though these 390 unique paths all head off in different directions after tonight, they have crossed here, on this day.”