Armwood High Hawks Cross the Stage From Senior to Alumnus (VIDEO)

Ryan McLarty can tell you the moment it hit him, the enormity of the moment represented by a simple walk across the stage at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall.

“When I got the diploma it finally hit me,” McLarty said, minutes after the Class of 2011 commencement for the Armwood High School Hawks concluded June 6 after a 9:30 a.m. start.

“I’m pretty excited,” he added.” It means I can move on to bigger and better things.”

With him on the next leg of the journey is a graduating class that, according to its principal, Michael Ippolito, saw the passage of some 365 seniors, who collectively raised $2.7 million in academic scholarships and another $2.1 million in sports scholarships.

The class boasts 48 National Honor Society members and 83 Florida Bright Futures scholars, including five eligible to receive the highest academic designation in that scholarship program.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams,” Ippolito told the class, in a speech he delivered, that ended with this oft-cited quote by Henry David Thoreau. “Live the life you’ve imagined.”

Armwood graduates Sylvia Blaxton (’00), with her sister, Ebony (’02), were on hand to see their sister, Thelma, graduate with the Class of 2011.

Sylvia Blaxton's best advice to this year’s graduates, “go to college, right now the economy is down, it’s a necessity.”  

“Don’t take your last year for granted, go to college, make friends, have fun, and most important, graduate from college also,” Ebony Blaxton added. “Nowadays, so many girls are getting pregnant at young ages, they don’t get to live their lives or see other things in the world.”

Amber Bilchik, with a weighted 6.167 grade-point average, delivered her speech as salutatorian, urging her classmates to “live up to your potential” and “don’t waste it.”

“When life gets hard, just take it with a grain of salt,” she said.

“Embrace everything in life and do the best you can.”

As the valedictorian, Kyle Wilcox earned a weighted 6.46 grade-point average; he also received numerous honors for his tenure on the Armwood High School football team, which this year lost in the final game for the Class 4A state championship.

In his speech, Wilcox said he did not hold himself up as a role model, but rather was lifted by the many role models in his life, from the people who put food on his table to the people who played a role in his education.

To his classmates, he said, remember your parents.

“They’re the ones always pushing for us to succeed,” he said. They’re the ones, he added, “always thinking of us, whether we want them to or not.”

Jessica Eaton and Jessica Edwards paused for a photographer following the commencement, outside the Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

They both said they didn’t feel any differently, that maybe it would hit them later. Eaton said she was glad she didn’t cry and Edwards said if nothing else, the diploma means, “you’re in the real world now.”

How that goes for the graduates of Armwood High remains to be seen.

“If you do know where you’re headed, I applaud you,” Bilchik said in her salutatorian speech, noting that for her, and for many, that decision has yet to be made.

But on one thing all can agree.

As Bilchik put it: “Although 18 years seems like forever, there’s a lot more to go.”