“Class of 2010, my friends, we made it!,” said Ashley Goble, student body president, in the closing speech to her classmates at Gordon Central’s graduation.

“Congratulations on all of your accomplishments and good luck in your future endeavors. It has been a long road,” she added.

Hundreds of parents, family and friends gathered Tuesday night in the Northwest Georgia Trade Center in Dalton for the graduation, which ended with more than 150 students receiving dilomas.

Valedictorian Katherine Wilson and Salutatorian Zachary Walkover delivered a dialogue speech together:

“It was the best of times,” Wilson said.

“No! It was the worst of times,” Walkover said.

“It seems like only yesterday we were getting ready to take those wonderful naps in kindergarten,” Wilson said.

“But then in high school they made us stay awake!,” Walkover said.

The audience laughed as they recalled high school memories, including their language arts classes with some help from the other graduates.

“We have traveled down the Mississippi with Huck and Jim,” Wilson said.

“And up the Congo with Charlie Marlow,” Walkover said.

“The horror! The horror!” said the class of 2010 in unison.

But the speech ended on a serious note with a look ahead.

“We have worked and studied all our lives to reach this point, but we cannot think of this as an end. This night is only the beginning,” Wilson said.

“As the poet Virgil stated: “E Pluribus Unum”: Out of many, one. The combined effort of the group has a greater impact than just one individual,” Walkover said.

Steven Kilpatrick, Gordon Central’s senior class president, gave the opening greeting and shared words of wisdom with his classmates, quoting President Abraham Lincoln:

“The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.’ Make every day count. And let that begin tonight,” Kilpatrick said.

Principal Betty Holland said she was proud of her graduates and will retire next school year.

Holland also read off a long list of academic, athletic and literary accomplishments before the graduates received their diplomas.

More seniors are slated to graduate this summer.