Erica Liu was first to receive her diploma at La Jolla High School’s class of 2015 commencement ceremony at Gene Edwards Stadium on June 15 – such are the perks that come with the office of class valedictorian. Several minutes before, Liu had reportedly regaled her 354 fellow graduates with an upbeat message on what awaits them, and apparently, there’s plenty. A published report says 97 percent of these seniors are going to college and that more than 200 of them racked up at least a 3.5 accum during their four years. The same story shows that 10 percent topped out their GPAs at at least 4.48. Liu’s was reportedly the highest, at 4.86. For her part, she’s off to MIT. I’m sure Liu’s talk was totally cool – problem is I can’t report on it, as I’d intended. See, I missed about the first half-hour of the whole thing, owing to a snag I’m about to explain. As luck would have it, I did get in on the last ten minutes of Principal Chuck Podhorsky, who eloquently listed the students’ virtues amid his thanks to the faculty. Podhorsky happened to use the phrase “of service” at least twice – and what would have been a disaster of a story is herein swathed in robes of irony and heartfelt thanks. Little did Podhorsky know that his message of selflessness was playing out literally yards from the field. For the second time in my career, I was failing miserably at a task that’s formidable any day of the week – finding that ever-elusive parking space. I’d been asked to cover the graduation for this paper, and I’d left our Pacific Beach office about four and a half days early in anticipation of the crunch at the school. My foresight was of no help as I circled and circled the turf; at the eleventh hour, our reporter Dave Schwab had an answer. His quick call to Fire Station 13, right across from the school’s front entrance on Nautilus Street, had met with the kindliest of souls, who, remarkably, said I could use the station’s lot. “You the guy from The La Jolla Light?” he asked as I pulled up, his grin threatening to split his face. “Village News, actually,” I meekly replied, thanking him profusely for his unrequited kindness. He waved me off like it was no big deal – “Just pull up over on the side,” he instructed, ending with a folksy “No problem” as I said I’d just be a few minutes. Now, that’s “of service.” And there’s more. I raced across Nautilus and followed the sound from the PA system toward the field, only to be waylaid by a chain-link fence that had no intention of relinquishing its bulky hold on a surrounding building. I’m sunk. Enter a perfect stranger, maybe my age and in unremarkable street clothes, with no reason to conclude I was there for the ceremony and no earthly compunction toward interest. Then again, who said anything about this experience was earthly? “Sir?” he lightly intoned: “If you’ll just go to the other side of the building, there’s a view of the field. Just on the other side of that building. Not a problem.” Lo and behold stood Podhorsky in the distance, unaware that his nod to service had just assumed form on virtually that very spot. La Jolla Village News warmly congratulates this year’s crop of Viking graduates, and we take special note of Podhorsky’s talk and the merger between the real and the ideal on what amounts to school grounds. Service means a lot of things to a lot of people – and on June 15, its smallest expression yielded an enormous reward.
