She’d been doing her best to fight off tears all evening.

But the battle for Eileen Stone was getting more difficult as the night wore on and reality started setting in that her baby would soon be leaving the nest.

“You’re going to make me cry,” she said.

Makana Stone, Eileen’s youngest of two children, was one of 77 graduates who received their diplomas during Coupeville High School’s commencement Friday night.

Eileen Stone has enjoyed a unique vantage point of her daughter’s decorated high school academic and athletic career. Aside from being her No. 1 cheerleader during sports events, she also serves as the middle school/high school secretary, which means she is used to seeing her daughter’s smiling face in the office and around campus.

It’s a sight she won’t see in the fall when Makana will be enrolled at Whitman College in Walla Walla, where she will also play basketball.

“Maybe I should go to Whitman and go get a job,” Eileen joked.

Eileen won’t be the only one feeling a tug of emotion about the separation. Makana liked mom being near.

“It’s had a big impact on me actually,” Makana staid. “I’m going to miss it, actually.

“It was a good thing. She was there to experience everything with me.”

Coupeville’s gym was full of friends and family who endured the heat to share the special night with graduates as they took a big step into the rest of their lives.

“Frankly, what you choose to do doesn’t matter,” Sebastian Wurzrainer, co-valedictorian with Destiny Cleary, told his classmates. “Whatever it is you decide to do, each and every one of you can make the most of it and do something meaningful. Meaningful doesn’t have to mean getting a PhD or having a Wikipedia page all about you. Meaningful is what you make of it.”

Other student speakers were McKenzie Rice, senior class president, and Loren Nelson, salutatorian, while retiring English teacher Barbara Ballard savored the opportunity to teach one last time as the faculty speaker.

She spoke of the strength and personal growth she’s witnessed from members of Coupeville’s Class of 2016.

“I have seen time and time again each one of you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get going again,” she said.

“You should feel confident that you have that skill to go with you. You are going to meet many people who don’t have that skill. With that skill, don’t let anybody get in your way.”

After they turned their tassels and let their caps fly, many graduates stayed in the crowded gym and said their goodbyes. Most of the class has grown up together in the small rural town.

“I feel like our class is the most diverse out of all of them,” Jazmine Franklin said. “We have like the jocks and the nerds but we all kind of love each other.”

Brenden Gilbert characterized the class as “a bunch of goofballs.”

Rice said they were quirky and unified.

“We’re definitely not the most regular class you’d come across,” Rice said. “I think we all get along here sort of like the Breakfast Club.”

Stone picked Whitman partly because of its sense of community. It reminded her of Coupeville.

“Everything they stand for is similar to kind of a Coupeville feeling,” she said. “It definitely will be different though. This place definitely has its own feel to it and I’m going to miss it.”