FARMINGTON – On a stuffy Saturday night, with bad weather resulting in an indoor graduation, and hot temperatures forcing programs to be used as personal fans, Mt. Blue High School said goodbye to 206 seniors, and welcomed home two distinguished guests.
First to come home was former Mt. Blue graduate Capt. Kevin Eastler, an Olympic racewalker who stressed to the crowd the importance of hard work and dedication while striving to reach a dream.
“Your dream is your starting point, your compass, but it’s not enough,” said Eastler. “You will have to work hard and make sacrifices to achieve it. For me, that meant training – usually two times a day, six or seven days a week – sometimes in the rain, sometimes in the snow, sometimes in 100-degree weather at high altitude.”
Eastler also spoke of the need to face failures with strength and resolve, and the rewards that can come by doing so.
“By learning from my mistakes, I realized my dream when I competed in the 20K race-walk in Athens last year,” said Eastler. “I was born and raised in Farmington, Maine, and am a Mt. Blue High School graduate, just like you; I achieved my dream, and you, too, can achieve yours.”
Mt. Blue also welcomed back Lt. Col. Glenn Kapiloff, the director of the school’s tech center. Kapiloff has spent much of the school year deployed in Iraq, but was granted a two-week leave to return home to see his daughter graduate.
Both Kapiloff and his daughter, Amber, spoke briefly to the crowd, with Kapiloff telling the students to “make a commitment” to themselves and to face life’s challenges as they come along.
Class President and Valedictorian Carly Lochala stressed the responsibility that her fellow classmates have now been handed in her address.
“This is it. An end to 252,000 minutes of high school, but an open door to the rest of our lives. We step through that door tomorrow, with our futures entirely ours to decide.”
Along with the graduating seniors, the ceremony also marked a goodbye for Mt. Blue’s principal, Greg Potter, who is leaving next year to take a superintendent position in another district.
“I not only say goodbye to the class of 2005, but to Mt. Blue High School and M.S.A.D. No. 9,” said Potter.
Just moments later, the graduates began saying their own goodbyes, as they came up on stage to receive their high school diplomas, and then marched off to face the next stage of life.
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