Wareham's 8th graders, appropriately donning blue gowns, said goodbye to Wareham Middle School during a promotion ceremony on Thursday and hello to a new title: The Wareham High School Class of 2015.

"Challenge yourself," Wareham Middle School Principal Howard Gilmore told the roughly 200 members of the class, encouraging them to try new classes and activities in high school.

"Stay positive. Stay connected. Be well over the summer," Gilmore continued, before telling the students to make sure to arrive ready for high school in September.

Nicole Russo and Meghan Silvia were the class' valedictorians.

"We've been through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly," Russo told her classmates.

She assured the class that though middle school went by quickly and the end was bittersweet, it was only the beginning. High school - and the rest of their lives - would go by just as fast.

Commencement certificates along with a class photo were handed out according to the middle school's three houses: Douglass, Franklin, and Nobel.

The students celebrated with their families before ending the evening with a dinner and dance.