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One hundred and twenty-four Presque Isle High School seniors walked the graduation stage Friday evening in a gymnasium filled to the brim with family and friends.
Speaking before their classmates, several graduates reflected on their high school experience, and all that they had learned, particularly from each other.
“We’ve learned resilience, adaptability, and how to keep moving forward,” class president Eli Mosher said. “Years from now, we probably won’t remember every assignment, quiz, or deadline, but we’ll remember the people. We’ll remember the friendships, the laughter, the traditions and the moments.”
Echoing a similar note, class speaker Lane Carmichael described his peers as a “family” and the next generation of “leaders and cultivators.” But he emphasized that Presque Isle will always be home.
“My advice to you would be: Never forget your home,” Carmichael said. “Find your memory and hold on to it, and never let it go, no matter how far away your trek to your vistas.”
In his keynote address, Maine superior court Justice Harold Stewart II impressed on the graduates the importance of serving their communities.
Invoking the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, Stewart, who graduated from Presque Isle in 1980, spoke of the country’s founding, of the creation of a government “by, of and for the people,” and the fundamental rights Americans are guaranteed.
But he also spoke of the polarization and divisiveness in today’s society, and how it has driven people away from exercising those rights by serving.
Stewart discussed the difficulty of getting people to show up for jury duty, or to serve on school boards, town councils and — while referencing the explosion at a lumber mill in Searsmont last month that killed a firefighter and injured 12 others — volunteer fire departments.
“The more contentious it is, and the louder and messier it seems, just reinforces that those ahead of you just haven’t finished yet,” Stewart said. It is now your turn to take the lead, to take the mantle, so to speak, and put your generation’s mark on what these rights mean.”
The Presque Isle High School band performed the graduation’s music, while graduate Johanna Cote sang the national anthem and “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus at the start of the ceremony.
Principal David Bartlett presented the school’s academic achievement awards to the students with the five highest grade point averages. Recognized were Carmichael, the salutatorian; Benjamin Straetz, the valedictorian; Ari Ouellette; Rhianna Desjardins and Kaeleigh Swanson.