Bega Year 12 students celebrate final week: 'Embrace the future and carve your own path'

They also enjoyed a thank you morning tea before an afternoon at Magic Mountain in Merimbula.

It was the accumulation of 13 years of schooling that led 58 students to celebrate their final week making and sharing memories with peers and staff at Bega High School.

Teachers were surprised when they received humorous awards including the faculty who were the slowest to mark exams or give assignments back, and the worst car parking skills.

Yet, students also gifted a serious award to recognise the office staff who worked tirelessly behind the scenes during their six years at Bega High.

On Thursday, September 21, parents were invited to the school for the official graduation ceremony, where the proud "mother of the students" Tracey Gibbons, their year advisor, shared a 15-minute speech, describing the final day as bittersweet from pride, yet equally filled with sadness knowing "they won't be back tomorrow".

Using an analogy that mixed "mathematics terminology" with the "cream of the crop", the graduating students of 2023 were labelled as the PRIME cohort by Ms Gibbons.

"Embrace the future, live life to the fullest, take any opportunity that avails and carve out your own path," Ms Gibbons said, sharing how she was so immensely proud of her year group that she couldn't top it if she were to be in the role again.

"It's been a true joy doing this job, shaping the lives of young human beings and helping support the families, it's different, it's not like you're producing a product, you're actually helping to mould and shape futures.

"The whole job has filled me with an immense sense of pride, to see them grow up over the years, it is quite a long time, you know, six years, however it has gone [very quickly].

"It's just a proud moment to see them all blossoming and starting their adult lives, [and] it's exciting to see what the next chapter holds for them."

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