By Mary Kathryn Carpenter

NATCHEZ — Cathedral High School graduates were served up a decent helping of advice during their graduation ceremony.

Friday night, the 38 graduates, of which 30 graduated with honors, received helpful tips for their future from classmates Jay Vaughan and Arden McMillin.

McMillin, salutatorian, warned against procrastination and to make choices based on what each individual wanted in their life.

“Imagine that life is a restaurant with a menu consisting of innumerable options,” McMillin said. “College is the waiter who comes to take your order, so explore your options, ask questions and use college as a tool that will guide you to the life you want for yourself. Order exactly what you hunger and yearn for, and tackle every bit of it until you can leave feeling satisfied.”

She joked that fellow classmate and valedictorian, Vaughan, did not know what procrastination was, but he jokingly addressed it in his speech to his classmates as well.

“The thorny branches of near-incessant and procrastinated schoolwork, nervousness about the future and personal worries pierced and scratched at our heels,” Vaughan said. “But we marched on and, now, have reappeared on the other side of this four-year labyrinth as changed people, equipped to triumph over the challenges that lie before us.”

Vaughan went on to describe the various talents of his classmates, from being athletic to artistic to intelligent.

One of the class’s teachers, Cheryl Hunt, said the class is very unique as well.

“I hope they try to remain themselves and be the unique individuals they are,” Hunt said. “They are very unique, creative and talented.”

The graduation was standing room only in St. Mary’s Basilica, and as the ceremony ended, the graduates were eager to leave.

As they filed onto the front steps of the church, cheers could be heard up and down Main Street.

Caps were in the air before parents were given the chance to exit the church, but the graduates did not seem to care.

“They were ready,” teacher and parent Denise Thibodeaux said.