With just a few quick steps, a couple of handshakes and countless hugs, high school seniors across Hamilton County snagged their diplomas Saturday and now can officially call themselves graduates.
For about 12 hours, several Chattanooga area locations were overflowing with proud parents and beaming graduates.
Fathers cradled bouquets of flowers as mothers dabbed at tears, watching their children walk across a stage and into a new chapter of their lives.
"It's very memorable," said Dwanna Kimbrough after seeing her daughter, Lya, graduate from the Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences. "It was just a blessing."
The CSAS ceremony was one of five held at the Tivoli Theatre, where families and graduates gathered under the building's ornate ceilings to commemorate a milestone.
Graduating CSAS senior Akintunde Ojehomon Jr., 17, kept the crowd laughing through his commencement speech, recalling memories of bonding with other students, attending school athletic events and painstakingly ironing his clothes for the first day of ninth grade.
"People told us all the time that high school would go by quickly," Mr. Ojehomon said to the crowd. "It took me to this day to realize just how quickly."
The second student speaker, Sarah Stoloff, reminded her classmates of the "wonder of life, learning and literature" by recounting the many stories the group of about 100 learned in their 13 years of primary schooling.
Her mother, Bonnie Stoloff, who teaches in the school's elementary division, said she was proud to watch her daughter and former students graduate.
"I know how far they've come," she said, "and they blow me out of the water. They are fantastic."
CSAS Principal Barbara Jordan said 99 percent of the school's graduates were accepted into a two- or four-year college and 100 percent have post-secondary education plans. Scholarships and grants given to the students total upward of $5 million, she said.
As 17-year-old Erin Mourier prepares to attend the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to study social work, she said she couldn't help but think of what she was leaving behind.
"I felt like this is going to be the last time I'm ever going to see these people again," she said between taking photos with family, clutching a bouquet of yellow roses. "But I'm looking forward to meeting people and being able to do a job that hopefully I'll love."
Question asked: Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently in high school?
Michelle Brady, 17
"I wouldn't be afraid to express myself more and be comfortable with myself."
Akintunde E. Ojehomon, Jr., 17
"Everything I've done so far has had a purpose. I'd only change my academic effort in my freshman year."
Kyle West, 18
"I would have tried to find a core group of friends sooner."
Janel Blackburn, 17
"My time management, just getting things done when they need to be."
Photo Gallery
Ladies Night at Lulav
Thursdays are Ladies Night at Lulav and V Lounge in Little Rock, with $1 martinis, music and more!