The bold young graduates, facing one of life's momentous occasions, sat in the Inez Norman Spiers Auditorium of Garden City High School, nervously awaiting word about their graduation ceremony. As the young ladies debuted their white gowns and the young men donned white tuxedo jackets, without a cap or gown in sight, the youth of the Village, whose own traditions fly in the face of graduation custom across the country, hoped that the administration in charge of deciding whether or not to move the ceremony indoors would be willing to challenge the weather and expectations. The Garden City High School gymnasium was set to accommodate the parents, graduates, and Garden City High School Band, but the students were not looking forward to a hot and crowded ceremony in the gym.

As the Garden City High School Class of 1998 chatted anxiously about college destination for the fall and summer jobs or vacation plans, Prinicpal John Okulski kept in contact with the faculty, administration, and student volunteers working to organize the ceremony on his walkie-talkie as the students tried to catch a word or two on the fate of their day. Athletic Director Nancy Kalfus entertained guest speaker and one of Garden City's most famous residents, Susan Lucci, as she waited with the students in the auditorium, as others tried to work up the nerve to approach their favorite star of soaps and television movies. Parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends, meanwhile, waited in the gym with members of the Board of Education, teachers, and administrators, assuming the ceremony would be held indoors.

Then, as the nervous excitement and heat in the gym was beginning to become too much, Principal Okulski asked for everyone's attention. He had earlier told all the graduates assembled how very much he had enjoyed working with the class as they pursued their high school diplomas and respected the contributions they had made to the academic community, now he was about to make one of his last announcements as their principal. Much to the collective joy of the students, he announced that the ceremony would in fact be held outside in the spirit of adventure and freedom the class exhibited themselves. The cheer from the Class of 1998 echoed through the halls of the school they were about to leave.

Families and faculty assembled in the gym were then asked to proceed to the bleachers by the field to witness the graduation ceremony which was to be held outside. Not all of the family members appreciated the bold spirit that was being demonstrated by this act of defiance against the weather, as they expressed their displeasure rather loudly, but the graduates would not be deterred. The guests ran to their cars for umbrellas as the bleachers became a colorful display of the wide variety of umbrella art. Grandparents were seated in a tent set-up on the track, where they could remain more dry than their relatives in the bleachers.

Members of the Garden City High School Band were led by their director, James McCrann, to their places on the field, as some students attached umbrellas to the backs of their seats to prevent their sheet music and instruments from getting wet. The band played on, despite the threat to their instruments from the sounds of thunder and the precipitation. Administrators, teachers, and members of the Board of Education found their place on the podium and stood on the field creating a human wall on either side of the entrance to the field where the students would walk in-between as they proceeded to their seats on the track. As the wind continued to blow strongly, Superintendent Lee Wilson and other organizers rushed to upright flags blown over by the wind before the students stepped onto the field.

The processional line stretched from the track to the back door of the high school as the students made their way to their seats. The pomp and circumstance despite the rain was a tribute to the students' achieving not only a high school education, but readying themselves to face the challenges and obstacles that will be thrust at them by "the real world" in their own bold and independent way.