Wiscasset Middle High School graduated 25 students on Thursday, June 8, in a ceremony that emphasized the resilience and growth of its seniors over several particularly challenging years.
Graduation was moved inside of the school from the Wiscasset Speedway due to weather concerns, marking the first indoor event since before the pandemic.
The commencement exercises opened with remarks from student Payton Blagdon, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the national anthem led by valedictorian Carolyn Potter.
Keynote speaker Ed Thelander congratulated students on their adaptation to the challenges behind them and said that as they set their sights on new achievements, their plans will likely change over time.
“You can handle any situation you encounter,” he said. “We don’t look forward to adversity. We look forward to overcoming the challenge. We see it as an opportunity to excel. It’s simply about the perspective that you engineer.”
He urged students to develop an inner moral compass that will guide their responses to future challenges, to choose their heroes wisely, and to remember where they came from along with those who helped them.
Salutatorian Madison Westrich used Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to highlight the class’ responses to the many challenges they have adapted to and overcome during their years in school.
“Natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest, rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good,” she said, quoting Darwin. “We, too, have the potential to preserve our successful traits to become the best version of ourselves.”
Like the finches Darwin studied who evolved specialized beaks to survive, Westrich said, the members of her class have learned to overcome setbacks and global challenges.
Potter reflected on the passage of time in her speech, remembering how eager she and her classmates had been to grow up.
“We couldn’t wait till graduation, eager to explore the world,” she said, “and here I stand before you today, as we take our first steps down divergent paths.”
Though the class of 2023 has grown up, she said, they have growing yet to do.
“We grew up full of dreams and disappointments, difficulties and successes, tears and laughter,” she said. “We’re grateful for all the models that brought us here.”
Assistant Principal Warren Cossette addressed the audience at the request of the graduating class, the last that he taught. He compared the students to the cast of “The Breakfast Club,” noting their very different personalities and how they have grown since entering the school in seventh grade.
“Everyone in this room has grown more than anybody I’ve seen, and I’ve taught for 30 years,” he said. “Their specialness comes from their ability to do what my favorite quote says: ‘It’s not about who’s going to let me, it’s about who’s going to stop me’ … I’ve seen every student here do something great because they didn’t do it alone.”
Following speeches, graduates received their diplomas from Superintendent Robert England with a handshake from Wiscasset School Committee Vice Chair Michelle Blagdon and a rose from Principal Gina Stevens, who turned their tassels for them.
The recessional was led by Potter and Westrich as newly graduated seniors dispersed around the gymnasium and out into the evening, sharing their excitement with family and friends.
(LCN intern Frida Hennig contributed to this article.)
