ALLENTOWN — About 80 students graduated from Central High School Thursday night. Logan Hoffman was the valedictorian and Lindsey Smith the salutatorian, but the school's tradition is to allow the student body to also select two volunteers to speak about their high school experiences.
One of those speakers, Hannah Sprague, set the tone for the evening with a message about how kindness is the way to win.
"I was a preemie and born at 28 weeks gestation weighing 1-1/2 pounds," Sprague told the audience. Her doctors told her parents she would not survive the night and suggested they think about taking her off a life support machine.
"The next day I was still there," Sprague said. "Miracles happen every day. You are looking at one."
"It wasn't easy," she added. "I didn't speak my first word ever until I was 4 years old. I learned how to tie my shoe when I was 13. I learned how to ride a bike at 15 when most of us were learning to drive."
She thanked her class for not treating her like a label.
"Thank you for treating like a classmate," she ended her speech.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Kindness wins