Nearly 50 Edinburgh seniors tossed their caps Saturday to mark the end of high school.

Many students faced obstacles on their way to graduation. Among those is graduate Morgan Govero.

As the years went on and she moved from city to city, she thought she would probably follow the path of her siblings, all of whom had dropped out of school.

Govero is the youngest of seven siblings. Amid familial difficulty, that included child protective services taking her from her parents, her life took her from Indianapolis to Missouri, back to Indianapolis, to Edinburgh, back to Indianapolis and finally, back to Edinburgh. All in all, she went to five schools before finishing her degree at Edinburgh Community High School.

After living with her parents, she lived with an older sister before once again moving, this time to live with her aunt and her grandmother, Govero said.

“We were living with my sister for a while and their landlord kicked them out and we’d have to get out because we were staying with them,” she said. “My aunt and my grandmother picked us up and drove us to Edinburgh and we packed everything into one trip. We were staying with our aunt on Pleasant Street.”

She, along with her brother, Dylan, stayed in Edinburgh from freshman through junior year, but that didn’t last either. Before the start of her senior her grandmother’s rent to an amount she couldn’t afford, Govero said.

So, for several months, Govero lived with her sister on the northside and commuted an hour to get to school.

“It was hard to be able to get the gas she needed to get us to school and we did have to miss some days because of gas issues,” Govero said. “An hour drive is a lot of gas every day.”

But still, she persevered, and ended high school with a 3.17 GPA, including straight-As this semester, she said.

Govero found relief in a friend’s mother. In November, while sleeping over at their house, she asked the mother, Christy Kean, if she could stay over for a few nights while she got things figured out. She’s been there half a year, Kean said.

“Morgan came over and Morgan was great. You expect teenagers to be like a teenager but Morgan was polite, responsible and when she came to live with us, it wasn’t any extra work,” Kean said. “We brought her in and she made her bed every morning and ate breakfast and we established a routine and it worked out. I’m glad we got to do that. She’s blossomed over the last few months.”

At times, Govero thought she would drop out, but she was determined to graduate. She accomplished her goal Saturday, as she crossed the stage at Edinburgh High School.

“All my older siblings dropped out of high school, and I thought by default, I would be like that,” Govero said. “It’s really satisfying to get to this point.”

Govero will next attend Ivy Tech Community College in Franklin to begin her path to a career in writing and animation.

“I’ve been writing since I was younger and I always drew when I was a kid, but I drew more in middle school,” Govero said. “This year, I decided I wanted to do animation and bring my stories to life.”