On Wednesday evening, the air was warm and the excitement abundant as 664 Neshaminy seniors threw their caps into the air. The tassels for the most part detached, the caps themselves decorated with glitter, felt and clever slogans. After the official sendoff and dismissal by Class President Abby Alexis, there wasn’t a rush to recover caps, programs, or even diplomas, but instead a rush to hug, cry, and wish well thoughts among the rest of the graduating class.

The night was met with a fine selection of clever, yet thoughtful speeches among administrators as well as the members of the senior class. As with all graduation ceremonies, a level of distraction fell among the seniors as they reached under their chairs to blow up beach balls and pass them to friends and strangers just rows away.

Class Valedictorian Jake Meadows, who will grace the halls of the University of Pittsburgh this fall, spoke of the beauty in not knowing what the future holds. Meadows spoke of the confusion, frustration and anxiety that lies among seniors and young people, a desperate need they all have to figure things out, choose a major, select a college, retire into a career. “The goals you have at 18 are different than those at 28, and again at 38,” he said. He assured the class not knowing the answers to all of life’s questions was “okay”.

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One by one students were called to accept their diplomas, some shook hands with their fellow teachers, but most hugged and cried with them, knowing they had achieved the goal together.

Some facts on the graduating class:

-The Neshaminy High School class of 2015 is comprised of 664 students

-Of the entire graduating class, 85% will move on to higher education, 3% will join the military, while 12% are undecided or will join the workforce

-73% of the graduating class have chosen a college or university within the state of Pennsylvania

-Students who have chosen colleges outside their home state, have selected schools as far away as California and Washington. New Jersey, Florida and South Carolina were top contenders

-Class of 2015 Valedictorian: Jake Meadows. Meadows will be majoring in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh

-Class of 2015 Salutatorians: Alli Kaufman, Anthony Murray and Jenny Pan. Kaufman will be majoring in International Affairs at Georgetown University, Murray will take up Engineering at Drexel University while Pan studies Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.