As black storm clouds gathered over the Valley Friday morning, Douglas High School staff members stuffed diplomas into Ziploc bags.
"Last night, the kids told us, 'We just want to graduate,'" said Anita Ovard, Douglas High School registrar.
A week of lashing rains, lightning storms and far-booming thunder heralded the end of an era for the school's 404 graduating seniors. Staff members had prepared to postpone the ceremony to Saturday morning, but students were adamant. The exceptional weather seemed to test or even incite their determination to finish.
"It's the last Friday, and if we do it tomorrow, everyone has graduation parties, and it will be a mess," said 18-year-old Marshall Jessup while waiting inside the school Friday evening.
"We can pull out our umbrellas and just get through it," he said.
Although measures were taken to combat the storm, both students and school officials found themselves outside in relative calm by 5:30 p.m. Enough sunlight had pierced the battery of clouds to illuminate the softball field where the ceremony took place. As students found their seats, parents crowded the makeshift fences, trying to catch glimpses of their sons and daughters.
"I said I wasn't going to cry," said Angela Abawi, whose daughter Kendra is the first of her three children to graduate.
Abawi said she had Kendra when she was 17, and had been a single mother for a long time before having her two younger children.
"It had been me and Kendra our whole lives," she said. "She is so beautiful, both inside and out. Now, she needs to find her own way."
To open the ceremony, Douglas High Principal Marty Swisher had the students stand and congratulate not themselves, but those there at the event who had helped them along the way.
"I want you to thank your parents and friends," he said. "Give a round of applause for all those who supported you."
Class valedictorian Lulu Yu then stepped up to the podium to deliver her speech, starting with a quote from Shakespeare.
"We know what we are, but know not what we may be," she said. "We all regard that unknown differently, but the one thing we have in common is that we are all prepared for that unknown through our experiences the past years."
Yu called on her classmates to enter the world with passion.
"I challenge you to make a promise to yourselves to live with an open mind and an open heart, so that you may truly experience all the world has to offer," she said.
Fellow graduate Jesus Palma told students they can be a catalyst for change.
"Choose your own path. Take the road less traveled. Push forward when the world holds you back," he said. "The future hasn't been invented yet. You have an opportunity to make a dent in the universe."
Speaker Andrew Solomon, looking out over his peers, noted the uniformity of caps and gowns.
"They're not only a powerful fashion statement, but a sign of equality," he said. "The equality of opportunity, to make our dreams realities. We can seek our place in the world, not on the bottom, not on the top, but together."
Class salutatorian Clara Ritger finished up the student speeches with a surprising statistic.
"A study found that 49 percent of Americans are unhappy with their work because they have no passion for it," she said.
She called it the American paradox.
"Either you have money and stability, or you do something you love," she said.
But she urged students to take a risk, to follow their dreams, despite money and stability.
"If it works, run with it. If not, at least you can go through life knowing you gave it a chance," she said.
Assistant principal Becky Rugger took the stage next, and it was an emotional moment for the student body. The beloved administrator is leaving Douglas High School to become principal of Diamond Valley School in Alpine County.
"You have discovered the challenges and joys of being a teenager. You have known the ups and downs of high school life. Now, you have the skills to make the best choices possible," Rugger said. "Congratulations class of 2009, I love you."
After the speeches, slowly but surely, the students filed onto the stage, each receiving their diploma in a plastic bag. Stepping back down into the world, some students lifted their arms in gestures of triumph, while others wept from the overwhelming significance of the moment.
When the long procession finished, the students gathered and threw their caps into the air, like a blast of confetti.
"I'm going to miss them so much," graduate Jessica Gorton said of her family members.
The 18-year-old will soon be leaving for Wagner College in New York City, where she plans to compete in track and field and study nursing.
"I've never been away from my family that long," she said. "I'm kind of nervous and excited. It's going to be a new place, a new culture, a taste of the world. I guess you just have to take a chance and go for it."
But Douglas High School students weren't the only ones this weekend preparing for the tough good-byes. Sierra Crest Academy, the Minden-based charter school that opened in 2004, honored its first graduating class on Saturday.
"It's a good feeling knowing I made it through," 18-year-old Steven Segal said Saturday morning.
Segal, one of seven Sierra Crest graduates, plans to attend Sierra Nevada College and major in recreational ski management and business.
"I'm going to miss everyone, the memories I've had here," he said.
Classmate Justin Graham plans to attend Western Nevada College and study criminal justice. He wants to become a police officer.
"I'm looking forward to being out on my own," he said. "I'm not looking forward to bills, though. I don't like them already."
For parents Penny and Pete Russell of Johnson Lane, the graduation was a first.
"Kyle is the first to go out of three kids," Pete Russell said. "Now we're looking forward to getting him through college. It doesn't end here."
District Court Judge Michael Gibbons, a Sierra Crest board member, delivered the ceremony's keynote address.
"You live in the greatest country in the world," he said. "Your responsibility now as adults is to make a positive difference in that world."
Gibbons urged the students to continue their education beyond high school, to stay healthy, both physically and mentally, and to become self-sufficient.
"You don't have to be lucky to be successful; you just need hard work and the ability to set goals," he said. "You need to be able to seize the moment when opportunity presents itself."
Sierra Crest Principal Dave Brackett told his students that growing up isn't easy.
"You may not think you're ready, you may not think you have what it takes, but I can assure you that you do have what it takes," he said. "Some people might have told you that you'd never be here. Maybe you believed them. But now you are here. You have succeeded. This is something that no one can take away from you. So look around the room and remember this feeling - you've earned it; you deserve it."
