Graduation Night
The impact of graduation night didn’t sink in until Sara Medrano looked in the mirror and adjusted her cap and gown. A Senior at Santa Fe South High School, she excitedly greets her friends, her brother, and a few of her teachers as she waits backstage for the ceremony to begin.
During her freshman year of school, Sara Medrano thought of dropping out of school. She drew inspiration from watching an older class walk across the stage to get their diplomas. “I don’t care what I had to go through,” Medrano recalls thinking, “I’m going to graduate.”
Teachers start organizing the chaos, and the students form two lines. They’ll weave through the hallways at First Baptist Church in Moore, Oklahoma, enter at the top of the sanctuary and work their way down to their seats. Sara finds her place behind her brother David. They will be the first in their family to graduate from high school. She talks with friends about the butterflies in her stomach and laughs about what would happen is she tripped and fell. Medrano talked about being an inspiration to her children, hoping they would achieve even more, but in the short term, she hopes to inspire her younger sister. “I want her to learn from me…and then be better than me.”
-John Clanton
