The 378-member class of 2013 is the largest Mercer Island High School graduating class since 380 students received their diplomas in 2008.

The class of 2013 represents a 27-student or 8 percent increase over the 351-member class of 2012 and a 13 percent increase over the class of 2010. If there is any doubt of the increasing pressure on the facilities of the Mercer Island School District, look no further.

Yet, despite their years in the increasingly squeezed hallways of the Mercer Island School District, our new graduates have persevered and flourished. Eschewing the use of lockers since middle school, they have made it in time to class despite the mere five minutes allotted to haul themselves and a heavy backpack across campus. They have been well fed despite the crowds in the cafeteria, wrangled rides with friends to school and gotten lab reports in on time.

They have been volunteers, athletes, brothers and sisters, leaders and followers. These are students who have managed precalculus, Spanish and jazz band practice before school at 7 a.m. After school, they headed to the gym or the track, to tutors and lessons. Along with their studies, they have effortlessly upgraded their pods and pads and navigated their complex social life via iPhones and Skype. They compose and create. They have had adventures and made their mistakes. Despite the concerns of their parents, they have already dipped their toes into the possibilities and risks of the great nearby and beyond. And that is where they are headed now.

We wish each of them the gift of kindness and patience, perseverance and luck. We wish them a life well lived.

But finally, we cannot help but notice that all of the class of 2013’s top students — the five valedictorians, Isabel Christy, Corey Goelz, Natalie Marques, Emily Morse, and Christina Williamson, and the two salutatorians, Hannah Frisch and Madeline Larkin — are young women. It was the same for the class of 2012.

We say, ‘you go girls.’