TRURO - Room 99 holds a special memory for Julia Phillips.
It was where the Bible Hill teenager had her first class, a biology lab, as a Grade 10 student at Cobequid Educational Centre. The memories from three years earlier came back to the graduating student a few days ago when she approached Room 99 while walking through the empty hallway.
She stopped and looked inside the lab.
"And suddenly, memories of who I had been as a person started coming back as well: shy, insecure and self-conscious," the valedictorian told a packed audio visual room last night during CEC's graduation ceremony.
"For example, if you had asked me three years ago if I would audition for the school musical or make a speech to the graduating class, the answer would've been, 'No way, are you crazy?'"
She said many events have happened during the past three years that have impacted their lives and made them the young adults and high school graduates they are today.
"It's amazing how much we've all grown since Grade 10, but even more amazing to think of how much more we still have left to do," she said.
During her speech she borrowed some lines from Walt Disney, Alicia Keys and even Albus Dumbledore, from the Harry Potter series.
Graduates said it was scary but exciting to be finished their high school days. The students marched through the hallways one last time last night starting upstairs by the cafeteria, going through the gymnasium where about 1,000 people watched the ceremony on large screens before ending up in a packed audio visual room for a ceremony nearly 20 years in the making.
Three years ago many of the students didn't know their counterparts from across the county. They came from junior high schools in Bass River, Central Onslow, Bible Hill and Truro.
Since then they have shared classes, enjoyed the thrill of victory as part of varsity sports teams and made friendships that will last a lifetime.
Truro resident Shawn Ford said he will remember all the good times with friends and the dedication of the teaching staff when he thinks back to his high school days. He plans on taking a year off before heading to college to study carpentry.
Principal Rosalie Stewart-Fisher said educators have the rewarding opportunity to watch students grow up into young adults.
"We have some exceptional students graduating that will go on and make a difference in the world," she said. "I look at teenagers and I see the remarkable students we have and I think we're definitely doing something right and the students and parents are doing something right.
"Our future is in good hands when we look at our young people."
After the ceremony, students, family members, friends and school staff had a reception in the front lobby before students left the school one last time to head for safe grad festivities at the Industrial Building on the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition Grounds in Bible Hill.
Phillips told her fellow graduates to not think of the future with worry or anxiety but with excitement and hope.
"A chapter of our lives, our childhood, is over," she said. "But the chapter of our adulthood is just beginning; it is simply waiting for you to live it. So live it well. In the eloquent words of Larry the Cable Guy, go out there and "git-r-done!!!!"
jmalloy@trurodaily.com
