Ferriday — Julia Corbett adjusted the gold sash and cords that hung around her neck just minutes before entering the sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Ferriday.

“I’m so excited I’m about to throw up,” she said, checking to make sure both sides were the same length.

And once the cords were just right, Corbett, along with her 25 classmates, lined up for the last time as Huntington School seniors.

Class salutatorian Lauren Hall said the commencement ceremony on Friday night marked the end of one chapter of her life at Huntington.

She said when she and her classmates entered the high school as freshmen they were much like infants.

“We wanted to experience it all,” she said.

And after graduation, Hall said that stage of life would be over, but another one was on the horizon.

“We stand here embarking on a different journey — adulthood,” Hall said. “We don’t have the safety nets we are used to.”

Corbett, who will enroll at Louisiana Tech in the fall to study radiation therapy, said the end of her high school days was something her brain was still having to process.

“It hasn’t really set in yet,” Corbett said.

But Corbett doesn’t have to leave all of her Huntington memories in Concordia Parish since several of her classmates are also making the trip to Ruston, La.

Classmate Jordan Jones said the next time he enters a classroom most, if not all, of the faces will be new to him. Jones said while he is looking forward to the new experiences of college, he will miss the familiar environment Huntington has always offered.

“It is going to be a different experience,” he said. “Most of us have grown up together since pre-K.”

Class valedictorian Katie Gray said because of their experiences at Huntington, she and her fellow graduates were prepared for the next stage of their lives.

She said all they have to do is make the right choices.

“This is the end of level one, the end of living at home,” Gray said. “Now we have to decide how our lives turn out. Many doors are in front of us. This is where we choose the ones we will open.”