Family and friends filled the Harry M. Ward Auditorium Saturday morning to wish the 60 members of the Mathews High School Class of 2022 all the best as they prepare for college, careers and all the adventures that lie ahead as high school graduates.

“We are gathered here today to celebrate the Class of 2022,” salutatorian Joice Small said to the assembled crowd. It was a path that, for many, began at kindergarten.

“Our paths have not been identical because, as a class, each of us are very different people,” she said, adding that “our differences are what make us great.”

She recalled some of the “similar stops along the way” for the Class of 2022, such as being “terrified in fifth grade that Mrs. Moore would take away one too many HABIT letters so we couldn’t go to the party at the end of the quarter,” as seventh graders hiking through the nature trail with Thomas Hunter teacher Jerry Ligon or being “robbed of the spirit stick sophomore year when a junior cheated in the tiebre...