LISBON – Events in Iraq were brought home to 81 Lisbon seniors Sunday afternoon in a poignant address by Senior Class President Amber Baxter, an honor student.

“I’ve thought about this moment for months,” Baxter told her classmates. “In my head I came up with hundreds of things I wanted to say.” But she said she narrowed the list down to “one single message that I want everyone in this room to hear.”

Two weeks ago, the Lisbon community lost one of its “finest members,” she told her audience. “Army Spc. Beau Beaulieu was killed by mortar fire at Camp Cook in Taji, Iraq, on May 24.

“Two years ago, almost to the day, I was sitting where you’re sitting now, watching Beau graduate with the class of 2002. I didn’t know him well back then and I don’t know him well now, but part of me will always wish that I’d taken the time to get to know Beau better … and so this is my message to you, my classmates, and also to our families and friends: Never take for granted the people in your lives.

“Treat every day as though it were your last … making sure that if you should be gone tomorrow, the people that you love know that you love them.”

Regret, she said, “is an extremely powerful emotion. Explore your relationships with the people around you, meet new people, reconnect with old friends.”

Baxter urged classmates to find the courage to love those who “cannot love you back and to forgive those who hurt you,” so they can look back on yesterday “without regret.”

Look around, she said, “These are people that we’ve shared our childhoods with. … We’ve laughed together, cried together. Today we say goodbye together.”

She was followed by Jonathan Charette, another top 10 student and member of the National Honor Society and student government.

“We are a class to be remembered,” he told graduates, after which a moment of silence was observed.

The keynote speaker was Norman Croteau, district attorney for Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties. Saying he was “deeply honored” for being asked to speak, he noted he was asked on Wednesday to be the speaker and confessed to being a “little nervous; I live with a 17-year-old.”

He was followed by Superintendent Shannon Welsh who said “I have a gift for you, I will keep my speech short,” which drew applause. She kept her promise.

Warren Galway, who is completing his first year as assistant principal at the high school, said it was a special day for him as nearly 40 years ago he graduated from Lewiston High School.

Galway drew laughter from the audience as he recalled his own high school days and the reason he became an English teacher.

“Think big, work hard and never quit, never let anyone steal your dreams,” he told students, concluding by congratulating “Lisbon High School’s newest alumni, the Class of 2004,” which drew loud cheers and applause.

Diplomas were handed out by Welsh and Principal Kenneth Healey, who is also completing his first year at Lisbon. Students were to meet at the high school later in the afternoon for a bus ride to an all-night chem-free party aboard the Scotia Prince. They will return Monday evening. Musical selections were provided by the school band, with soloist Elizabeth Hunter accompanied by Andrea Lynch.

This year, for the first time, scholarships totaling $30,680 from 30 organizations and in memory of individuals were awarded in ceremonies at the high school on Friday night instead of during graduation. Seniors had voted to make that change earlier in the year.