ST. LOUIS – Only on FOX 2: the remarkable story of a St. Louis teen, determined to get to her grade school graduation just two hours after Friday’s tornado hit her neighborhood.

The staff at Lafayette Preparatory Academy (LPA) kept her 33 classmates and a crowd of about 300 waiting for Monica Phillips, 14, to arrive … for as long as they could. Her fellow students had selected her to give a speech at the ceremony. 

Monica and her family were meandering through a maze of tornado damage and blocked streets to make it there. Typically, the 5-mile trip from home to school would take 15 minutes or less. 

This time it took more than 90 minutes. 

Monica was worried as the clock ticked away and she was stuck in traffic.

“I had friends that I wasn’t going to let down,” she told FOX 2.  “I remember getting ready, stressing over if I was even going to make it, how I looked, if I had my heels on right.”

Even now, the new graduate is mentoring the younger students at her school. 

“Monica is an incredible young woman.  I’m worried about talking about it too much; I’m going to start crying,” LPA Executive Director, Dr. Sarah Ranney, told FOX 2.

Monica’s house suffered roof damage. A big tree out back took out a fence and fell into the neighbor’s yard, but the issue was the damage all around: rooftops, power lines, trees, and limbs blocked just about every street.

It seemed nearly impossible to get out of the neighborhood. 

Monica hoped to get to the graduation an hour early. When her family pulled up, they were an hour late. 

Monica ran from the car, up two flights of stairs and into the school gym. 

“No matter what, I will walk down the stage; I will get my 8th-grade diploma,” she explained. 

School staff delayed the ceremony for 30 minutes, then rearranged the order of things so that Monica would not miss her big moment. 

She made it just in time. 

Video captured the reaction of the staff, her fellow 33 graduates and the crowd of about 300 family members. They were cheering and jumping up and down. Monica was still running … straight down the aisle to the stage.

The school staff gave her family a chance to catch up with her. 

At last, Monica did walk on the stage. She received her diploma and gave a speech.   

“It was really nice to know that in all of that chaos people would remember and wait for me for that long,” she told FOX 2. “The best way to work through challenges like that is to believe that whatever happens in the worst moments, better things will happen.”

It’s off to high school for Monica. 

Down the road, she’s thinking she might like to be a doctor in sports medicine. For right now, she’s just so thankful that everyone at her school would care so much.