RICHMOND -- About 300 people piled into the Richmond High School Gymnasium today to say farewell to the 2008 graduating class.

Sarah Williams, valedictorian, told the 46 graduates that they were like ships on the sea.

Williams told her classmates that the first 18 years, they were building their own personal ships to take them through life, toiling under the watchful eyes of master craftsmen, parents and teachers who helped mold them into young men and women they are today.

“At the end of the day, however, it was our own hands that built our ships,” Williams said. Now we have finished all the building and our ships are ready to be launched.”

Mechele Cooper