It's lonely at the top. Especially when there's no one at the bottom. Or in the middle.
Jeremy Mock was the top graduate in his class at Kelleys Island School. He also was the only graduate for Saturday's commencement - a senior class of one.Only 172 residents live in this village on a Lake Erie island of the same name, about 10 miles off the coast of Ohio. There's just the one school for first through 12th grades.
Ordinarily, the ceremony is filled with eighth-graders graduating to the upper grades. Not this year; there weren't any.
"I don't mind," the 18-year-old Mock said Thursday between final exams. "It's kind of a special event."
Especially in a small town. Anywhere from 100 to 150 people were expected to attend, school Principal Charles Hoffman said.
"It's sort of a community ceremony, I guess you would say," Hoffman said. "Relatives and friends come, and sometimes even tourists."
Mock is joining the Marine Corps. But he plans to come back for next year's graduation to watch his sister Michelle get her diploma. She'll be the one up there all by herself, another class of one.