After going through four years of high school together and times that included a full range of emotions causing responses from laughter to crying, all of a sudden they are set free to become whatever they want.
It's a scary thought for any high school graduate, but the 91 young men and women who graduated Saturday from Marian High School in Hometown are moving onto higher learning with some impressive numbers.
Graduates have received a total of $5.1 million in scholarship and grant offers and have accepted $2.3 million.
Most will continue their studies in college; in fact, 96 percent of the Class of 2014 will be going on to higher education.
The Most Rev. John O. Barres, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown, handed out diplomas to the graduating seniors Saturday morning in the high school gymnasium.
Barres was attending his first graduation at Marian.
He smiled throughout the ceremony, handing out diplomas and taking photos with each graduate, and talked to the young people about keeping God and church in their lives and to make it as much a part of their future as anything else.
Class valedictorian Tara Koskulitz admitted to her classmates that she doesn't have the experience or wisdom to give them advice, so she enlisted the aid of people who might be up to the task. People like Albert Einstein, who said, "Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value."
"I believe that Marian has prepared all of us for success by making us people of value as well as intelligent individuals," Koskulitz said.
Another piece of advice came from American author John A. Shedd, who wrote, "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
Koskulitz, as part of her valedictorian speech, told her classmates, "We all feel safe when we do what we are used to and what is comfortable; however, we are all destined to make a difference in the world, no matter how small a difference it may seem and we shouldn't let our fears impede us from doing what we really want to do."
Koskulitz left her class with a quote from the late rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley: "Whatever I will become will be what God has chosen for me." She used that quote as a reminder to her classmates that they all have special talents and a special purpose.
Class salutatorian Michael Dino, speaking to church officials, family, friends, faculty and the Class of 2014, recalled walking onto school grounds for the first time on Aug. 30, 2010, as a 14-year-old freshman.
He said he was overwhelmed, scared, excited and hopeful as he gathered with many of his classmates who joined him on a journey that started from grade school but each with the same type of anticipation of the unknown.
At Marian, he said, it was long before he realized he was part of a larger family that had its share of ups and downs but was like any other family that takes the good with the bad and replaces it with memories, mostly good memories.
Dino said to his classmates that if they are scared of going to college and meeting new people to remember that "Marian mentality" of friendship, love and togetherness.
Dino also offered some morsels of wisdom to his classmates.
"Never forget where you came from, stay connected with your friends and always keep your faith," he said. "If we keep the faith, God will always show us the right way to go."
He chose to quote Winston Churchill: "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
He thanked the teachers at Marian for preparing he and his classmates for a new life.
The principal's top 10 academic honor roll included Koskulitz, Dino, Joseph Letcher and Ryan Darrough, all of Hazleton; Monica Wasik, West Hazleton; Amanda and Arianna Srinivasan, both of Conyngham; Alexis Makowiec, McAdoo; Michael McHale, Tamaqua; and Kelsey Hurst, Barnesville.