Septuplets who captured the nation’s attention in the late 1990s have graduated from high school.
Alexis, Brandon, Joel, Kelsey, Kenny, Natalie, and Nathan McCaughey graduated from Carlisle High School Sunday afternoon, KCCI-TV reported.
They will take different paths after high school, including the military, working, and college.
Two of the seven siblings will go to Hannibal-LaGrange University in Missouri. Their parents were told they would get a free education there.
The McCaughey family made headlines in 1997 for having the world’s first surviving set of septuplets. They were born nine weeks premature and weighted approximately 3 pounds each.
Kenny and Alexis will live at home and attend Des Moines Area Community College. Alexis wants to major in early childhood education while Kenny will work toward a degree in building trades and construction.
“I honestly think it will be good for all of us to be on our separate ways,” Kenny said. “I am not worried about not seeing everyone that much. We have been around each other the past 18 years. I am ready to be on my way, and I think everyone else is, too.”
Brandon is going to the U.S. Army and will go to Fort Benning, Georgia, for basic training.
“It will be a little different being without all my siblings,” he said. “But it won’t be bad since I'll have contact with them. I think I will have a good experience being on my own, with my new military family. I have been taught to work for the things I want, and to not expect others to do anything for me. That helps with military life because I will need to do everything on my own, with no help at all from others.”
“The pregnancy has captured worldwide attention as both a symbol of the ultimate scientific miracle and a cautionary example of the unwanted consequences of fertility treatments,” the Times said at the time.
