WARDEN — The nervous energy behind the scenes was a mixture of pacing, working the gum just a little faster than normal or even quiet contemplation as the audience out front hooted and hollered its way through a slide presentation of the 67 Warden High School graduates.

It was a big night and the capacity audience was there to pay tribute to its young people. As music sounded and the doors to the staging area opened, they were ready to take the next step into a world outside the walls of their high school or the Warden city limits.

There were a few wide-eyed stares as they came into view of friends, family and loved ones. A few “wows” formulated on the lips as they made the way to the stage where their lives would forever change.

There were the top 10 scholars, valedictorian Trace Cole (3.98 grade point average), Shania Kisler (3.92) Konnor Massa (3.89), Brenda Rangel (3.83), Alondra Rodriguez (3.82), Raul Martinez (3.79) Janette Campos (3.76), Brenna Whitney (3.73), Carolina Martinez (3.73) and Isabel Gonzalez (3.69). Twelve are headed to college on athletic scholarships, others have plans that will shape their future.

But every one of them wore a brown ribbon with a piece of rope in memory of two fallen classmates, Shelby Roden and Cody DeTrolio, who didn’t make it to this day. Roden passed in 2010 when they were in the sixth grade and DeTrolio was involved in a fatal car accident just last year. The class opted to have portraits of their friends on two empty chairs in the center of the stage.

“The brown was Shelby’s favorite color and the rope represents Cody’s rodeo days,” said Tyson Yamane, who wore a video camera velcroed to his chest to capture the moment so he can watch graduation when he gets old. “We wanted to honor them as best as we could.”

Rachel Backwell and Jennifer Mendoza gave the opening address in both English and Spanish in recognition that they live in a bilingual community where everyone is respected for who they are. When you come from a town where you don’t have to use your turn signal because everybody already knows where you’re going, that’s what you do.

Cole’s touched on a few of the great speeches of all time.

“When I was putting together information for my speech, I did what every kid of my generation does … I Googled it,” he said as a chuckle rippled through the crowd. “But I wanted this to be personal.”

He touched on great moments and the experience of loss with the passing of two of our own.

“When we lost Cody and Shelby, I felt the love our class has for each other,” he recalled. “We had each other and we always will.”

As the night came to a close, the confetti rained down like the Seahawks at the Super Bowl, the words from that long-ago poster came to mind: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”