The 47th Annual Chopticon High School Commencement featured a lot for which the graduates could be proud. For one thing the 387 students represent the school’s largest graduating class. But this year the school also attained its highest national ranking ever, 787th out of more than 27,000 high schools in the country.

Principal Garth Bowling said the ranking put the school in the top three percent of all high schools in the country. School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano corrected Bowling during his address. “It really is the top 2.89 percent,” the superintendent boasted. Martirano said this is also the school system’s largest number of graduates, at 1,242 students for the three high schools and the Fairlead Academy.

Martirano gave the students some advice, including his signature: “Work Hard and Be Nic3e.” He also included, “always do more than expected,” “dance and sing and laugh out loud,” “don’t text while driving,” and the most important, he said, “Call your mom.”

Bowling told the graduates at the commencement Wednesday at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, “Your ability to be happy as well as financially successful lies within you,” adding that the secret of success in life lies “In each person’s heart.”

Class of 2012 President Frederick William Evans, III listed many of the class accomplishments. He said, “The Chopticon High School Class of 2012 is more than a class, it’s a family.” He added, “We all love each other.”

Evans said, “People say these are supposed to be the best years of our lives and they truly have been.”

Class Salutatorian Kyle Ambrose DeMarr said it was a tough job to sum up four years, “when I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.” He said the Class of 2012 is as diverse as it is large, with “overachievers and underachievers.”

He cited what he called the “Dunbar Principle” with his classmates. He said it’s really only possible to have about 150 relationships at a time, whereas Facebook allows up to 5,000. “We only have 150 true friends, so choose them wisely,” he advised.

Class Valedictorian Courtney Elaine Maines praised the number of academic and extracurricular activities available at the school. “No matter wh