As the tiny feet and carefree smiles ambled past her, she thought about her own classmates and the journey they’ve taken together.

“Back then, we were just getting to know each other,” she said in her valedictorian address. “We were just getting to know ourselves.”

Rose-McCandlish is one of 57 students who graduated as part of Lake Placid High School’s Class of 2019 at the Olympic Speedskating Oval on Friday, June 28. As she spoke, children ran around the courtyard before her, tossing a frisbee. One young girl screamed in glee as she saw a black balloon float toward the sky.

“This class … it’s like a giant, noisy family,” she said. “We’re all so comfortable with each other.

“Maybe too comfortable, at times,” she added, eliciting laughter from the audience. “I didn’t always appreciate it until I realized we weren’t always this way.”

The most resounding lesson they’ve learned: how to treat others well.

“The biggest change we’ve undergone is how we treat others,” she said. “Learning how to work with others is how you succeed as an adult.”

She looked up from her prepared speech and smiled, her hands steady against the podium before her.

“We almost look like grown-ups,” she said.

Rose-McCandlish, who plans to attend Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, spoke about her classmates’ senior projects and the community service they’ve completed.

“This is just the beginning of our mark on this world,” she said. “The only thing I can say for certain: We will always need the support of others. And we will always be able to return the favor.”

Lindsey Rath was this year’s salutatorian. The class speaker was Grant Reynolds, a 2006 Lake Placid High School alumnus, restaurateur and sommelier.

The commencement ceremony ended with graduates singing their alma mater. As their voices echoed across the courtyard, some Main Street pedestrians stopped and eyed the spectacle.

“Though we roam o’er land and sea, our love for you ne’er will die,” they sang. “For we will make the world re-echo, with the praise of Placid High.”