It wasn't easy, but they did it.

They may not have taken the path straight through high school, but on Wednesday, June 5, 58 graduates of the Wareham Cooperative Junior/Senior High School walked across the stage and were handed their hard-earned high school diplomas.

The auditorium was packed with proud parents, significant others, and for some graduates, kids of their own.

Graduate Brandon McAloney, 20, will attend Bristol Community College in the fall to study graphic design, and says that he is a different person now than he was while attending traditional high school.

"I was very lazy at one point," he admitted.

But McAloney made the decision to turn things around.

"I realized," he said, "I wanted a better life."

Superintendent Dr. Barry Rabinovitch shared his own struggles in school with the graduates, and empathized with the hard road many took to graduate.

"At the age of nine, my third-grade teacher found I couldn't read," said Rabinovitch.

It turned out that he had dyslexia which -- no matter how smart a person is -- can hamper learning how to read.  He told them that he had to repeat the third grade, but went on to earn his high school diploma and eventually a doctorate.

"Anything is possible that you put your minds to," he said.

Dominick Alves addressed his classmates.

"I want to thank the select few teachers who never gave up on me," Alves said. "Classmates, this is our opportunity to take the next step. ... We have more doors open to us because we stuck it out."

In a sad turn events, Alves was arrested days after the graduation for his alleged involvement in a stabbing on Shawnee Drive.

Cameron Alexander, 18, said that the Cooperative School provided an attractive alternative to an environment in which he felt he was treated like a child.

"I just had a hard time with school, so I did this," he said. "They treated us like human beings instead of little kids."

Lexie Tuell, 19, said she simply couldn't deal with the crowd at the regular high school.

"I don't like big groups," she said.

Justin Mendes, 21, met up with his girlfriend, Nicole Johnson, and their two-year-old son, Hayden, in the foyer after the graduation ceremony.

"Regular high school was dull and boring to me," he recalled. "Then, I just worked full time because I had my son."

Johnson noted that Mendes worked while going to school, and it was anything but easy: "It's been a really big struggle," she said.

But now that Mendes has diploma, hopefully life will get a little bit easier.