VIDALIA — When the 100 graduates of Vidalia High School walked across the stage on the football field Friday night, they weren’t just picking up their diplomas — they were burning boats.

That’s the metaphor Salutatorian Gracyn Eva Nelson asked her classmates to keep in mind as they finished high school and headed in new directions.

Using the school’s mascot as inspiration, Nelson said the first rule Vikings followed when on a conquest was to burn their boats.

“That allows for no retreat and no turning back,” Nelson said. “You must set fire to the boat that brought you here and watch it list and sink.

“Look back only to see where you came from.”

Commitment to burning boats takes courage, Nelson said, but “being a true Viking is not something you try.”

For a true Viking, “falling short does not mean failure,” she said, but a chance to learn.

Nelson urged her fellow graduates to take up the mantle of being the change they want to see in the world.

“The commitment to change has no days off,” she said.

“Diligence simply means being willing to work hard.”

Fifteen other special honor graduates joined Nelson and Valedictorian Rio Gabrielle Caldwell, and the VHS class of 2015 had 21 other honors graduates.

A total of 26 students graduated with the Concordia Parish diploma, which requires students to have at least a 2.5 grade point average, a 22 on the ACT and have taken at least one advanced placement course.

Seventeen students likewise graduated with certified nursing assistant certificates from Central Louisiana Technical Community College.

When looking back at her time in high school, Caldwell said she was thankful to God, the teachers and staff of the school for the preparation they gave students for the future.

“You have instilled in us the hope we need to move forward,” she said.

“You have given us the knowledge we need to excel and succeed.

“It is up to us to build on it.”

Caldwell said she feels like her class has become one big family.

“No one can hold you back, you are the only one who can limit yourself,” she said.

“You are going to do great things — I know it.”

Though it did not ultimately disrupt the graduation proceedings, some members of the crowd had to move to allow paramedics into the bleachers during the ceremony.

An older member of the audience apparently became overwhelmed and needed oxygen before being transported by ambulance to a local hospital.

Family members of the woman declined to discuss the situation.