Local high school seniors celebrate their graduation, with changes

Sierra Nelson and McKenzie Noble have been friends since the seventh grade.

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – Sierra Nelson and McKenzie Noble have been friends since the seventh grade.

This year, they had plans to walk across the stage together at their high school graduation.

“We’ve been talking about our graduation party for a while and we decided to do it together,” Noble said.

However, those plans changed when Topeka West High School canceled their graduation for safety purposes.

“Everything had to be pushed back, and everything was changing, so just actually trying to figure everything out was definitely stressful,” Noble said. “That you really had no idea what was going on.”

The pair were finally able to celebrate their graduation on Sunday with friends and family at Compass Point: Home of Dirty Girl Adventures, despite it not being quite as they imagined it would.

“We… were trying to implement masks… some people are walking around. The location, we had to make sure there was enough space for everyone to freely walk around and not make room for social distancing and stuff like that,” Nelson said.

Despite this – the girls are still grateful to have the opportunity to celebrate, even if it’s not walking across the stage.

“We get to have that moving on kind of ceremony, just not in the way we pictured it,” Nelson said.

However, other high school seniors were lucky enough to have that moment.

On Sunday, Hayden Catholic High School held their graduation ceremony at the Topeka Performing Arts Center.

“It means a lot. It’s good to have that last step to finish out high school and end on a good note,” said Hayden senior Andrew Schmidtlein. “I’m definitely happy that this is happening.”

Schmidtlein and his family celebrated after the graduation by going to dinner, he said.

Congratulations to the Class of 2020 from KSNT News.