WILLOW HILL, PA. - Forty-seven students graduated Friday night from Fannett-Metal High School in what was the school's first outdoor ceremony.
Family and friends set up lawn chairs to celebrate the graduates, who described themselves as close-knit.
"Instead of getting out of high school, it's more missing friends and not seeing them everyday," Melanie Crider said.
"Most of us hang out on the weekend," said Nick McCalmont, who joked around before the ceremony with friends Neil Hill, Corey Henry, Dakota Bair, Douglas Johnson and Justin Hockenberry.
Hockenberry described graduation as a "party and about time."
Graduation speaker Erik Sollenberger mentioned a few memories with classmates. In one, a girl shrugged off the requirement to drive 50 hours on a driving learner's permit.
Sollenberger said the girl's response was, "Fifty hours, that's nothing. I can do that in a day."
Sollenberger, who is in the process of having his second book published, evoked his love of writing toward the end of his speech.
