Beginning today with Nansemond-Suffolk Academy and continuing next Saturday, the city’s five high schools will release nearly 1,060 graduating seniors into the real world.

Many of these seniors will be headed to higher education. Some are destined for service to their country in the military, while others will be headed straight to careers.

They’ll contribute to society in as many varied ways as there are seniors. They’ll become doctors and dietitians, accountants and art teachers, farmers and firefighters, veterans and veterinarians, engineers and ecologists — the list won’t stop until it gets to approximately 1,060.

They’ll also contribute in non-work-related ways — volunteer in their community, have many friends, get married and have children and all the other things that come with life.

We’re proud of this year’s seniors — so proud, in fact, that we devoted many hours of work in the last two weeks to publish a special graduation section in Thursday’s paper that featured the photograph or name of every single senior graduating from a Suffolk school.

It was a large undertaking, and it gets larger every year. However, we are happy to do it to showcase the graduates. We’ll also be covering every single graduation — even though four of them are happening on the same day, in two different cities! — to show our recognition of their hard work and our appreciation for how these 1,060 young people will change the world.

Also, today on our front page wraps up a special series by reporter Matthew Ward on the valedictorians from the five high schools.

The seniors who earned that top distinction at their respective schools are Kayla Vincent from King’s Fork High School, Amanda Hamm from Lakeland High School, Benjamin Littlejohn from Nansemond River High School, John Hogan from Nansemond-Suffolk Academy and Noah Nickert from Suffolk Christian Academy.

Vincent will attend the University of Virginia with plans to move on to medical school and study dermatology. Hamm will attend Virginia Tech to explore her varied interests. Littlejohn will attend Dartmouth College to focus on engineering. Hogan will attend the University of Virginia for engineering. And Nickert plans to attend the College of William and Mary to study business.

Congratulations to these five and all their classmates in the class of 2014. Enjoy your graduation day.