Students fluttered about the library at Bishop Brady High School affixing their caps and gowns, taking selfies and hugging their friends.

And, of course, the ever-pertinent question popped around the room in rapid fire: Which way does the tassel go?

“Left to right?” students asked. Principal Andrea Elliot and longtime graduation photographer Greg Fortier explained to several seniors who sought their advice that no, you’ll want to move it from right to left.

Less than two hours later, 75 students hailing from four different countries picked up their tassels and momentously crossed them over the bridge of their caps to the left side, signifying their graduation from Bishop Brady High School.

For Nate Wax, who came to Concord’s private Catholic school from Florida to participate in the New Hampshire Mountain Kings ice hockey program, it hasn’t quite hit yet.

“It’s a little bittersweet, just because … it’s the end, you know?” Wax said. “A new chapter has begun, but like, also one’s closing, and that’s a little sad.”

Nick Pagauisan, the senior class president, said the work he put into creating a “functional and successful” student council will stick with him, as will his school’s Habitat for Humanity mission trip to West Virginia and his time leading the Sycamore Garden Growers, a club that cultivates plants for the community garden on NHTI’s campus (a service for which the Monitor featured Pagauisan as a Hometown Hero when he was a sophomore).

“Those kind of connections and shared experiences are the things that make saying ‘goodbye’ here pretty tough,” Pagauisan said.

Pagauisan is off to Croatia for a graduation trip, then starts at Boston College in the fall, where he intends to study economics. Wax will play juniors hockey next year, then plans to head to Michigan State University.

Other students spoke of the sense of belonging they found at Bishop Brady, like Kimble Rose, a Franklin resident who encountered more like-minded people there than she had growing up in public school.

“I was able to feel like I’m surrounded by other people who wanted to learn,” said Rose. “It was a really big change for me, and a really welcomed one.”

After four years playing varsity field hockey and softball, participating in service trips and squeezing myriad other activities into her high-school career, Rose departs later this month for Brigham Young University in Utah, where she’ll study elementary education.

Valedictorian Avery Sahr and salutatorian Camdyn Despres, who addressed the crowd Friday evening, thanked their classmates for the acceptance, kindness and friendships they found in high school.

But, Sahr said, it’s on brand. It’s just “Brady being Brady.”

Calling on her fellow graduates to reflect on all they’ve learned and how far they’ve come of the past four years, Sahr left them with some parting words of advice.

“I hope you walk into every room knowing that you have something to give. And when you forget, I hope you remember what it felt like to be loved here,” she said. “Choose joy when it’s hard, give kindness when it’s not earned and let your life be a radical act of love.”

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.