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Cameron Davis, 18, walks out to the Vidalia High School graduation ceremony Friday at Dee Faircloth Viking Stadium in Vidalia. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Vidalia High School graduates put their arms around eachother during the graduation ceremony Friday at Dee Faircloth Viking Stadium. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Sumer Rasberry smiles at other graduates Friday during the 2016 Vidalia HIgh School graduation ceremony at Dee Faircloth Viking Stadium in Vidalia. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Marty Blaney straightens his collar before the Vidalia High School graduation ceremony Friday at Dee Faircloth Viking Stadium. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Tamara Seals prepares to walk out to the Vidalia High School graduation ceremony while Michelle Smith wipes away tears Friday at Dee Faircloth Viking Stadium. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

VIDALIA — When Shannel Green was getting ready for graduation, she grabbed her hat, her gown and something else — a photo of her mother.

Green’s mother, Angie Fair, wasn’t going to be watching from the stands as she walked across the Vidalia High School football field to “Pomp and Circumstance.” Her mother would be watching from somewhere much higher.

Green had taped her mother’s photo to the top of her cap, she said, as a reminder of the support she’s received from Heaven since her mother died in 2005.

“She is looking down on me, even though she is not here,” Green said. “She’d be proud because I made it.”

And it was with pride that Green and her 104 classmates took to the field, celebrating the climax of their senior year, the commencement exercise that would sever their ties as students and proclaim them alumni.

Graduate Kira Toles said high school was an adventure she would always remember.

“These past four years have been some of the most memorable and unforgettable times of our life,” Toles said.

Salutatorian Gabrielle Morace said she found it amazing to think that the graduates had been working toward the goal they achieved Friday night for more than a decade.

With a nod to the crowd that she knew it was a cliché, Morace told her fellow graduates that the night marked the first page of a new chapter in their lives.

Extending the story metaphor, she encouraged them not to be passive characters in their own life.

“The story is yours to write, so make yours an epic,” Morace said.

Valedictorian Ajah Zhane Williams compared the graduates to an airplane, “sitting on the runway of life, primed for takeoff.”

“We would not have reached this destination alone,” she said. “It took prayers, support, encouragement and a push at times.”

Addressing her fellow graduates, she said they had received a great gift of education, “and what you do with this gift is your gift in return.”

Vidalia High School’s class of 2016 had 12 special honor graduates, 24 honor graduates and 21 Concordia Parish diploma graduates.

The Concordia Parish diploma requires students to have at least a 2.5 grade point average, a 22 on the ACT and at least one advanced placement course.

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