How do i pass information to a Uilabel in the second view controller in swift?

I'm fairly new to swift and i'm just trying to learn the different techniques.

The Situation: I have 2 view controllers. View controller number 1 consist of four buttons (north, south, east, west) for example. Lets say you click on the north button. It should take you to View controller number 2 and the UiLabel in View controller 2 should be displaying the name of whatever button that was pressed ("North" in this case). I know that when you're passing information forward, you should use the "prepare for segue" method but is there a way to do this with all 4 buttons? I also have a optional string variable in View Controller 2 that should catch the information being passed from View controller 1. I've searched everywhere but i haven't gotten an answer on this.

The code i have currently in view controller 1:

@IBAction func north(sender: UIButton) {

}
@IBAction func east(sender: UIButton) {

}
@IBAction func west(sender: UIButton) {

}
@IBAction func south(sender: UIButton) {

}

The Code i have currently in View Controller 2:

@IBoutlet weak var label2: UILabel!

var updateTheLabel: String?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
label2.text = updateTheLabel!
}

Question: how do i perform a segue with all four buttons to go to the Second view controller and update the UiLabel respectively?