POLAND – Friends and family packed the muggy gymnasium at Poland Regional High School Saturday afternoon as the school said goodbye to its 8th graduating class.

The 105 students making up the class of 2007 marched through the crowd in blue and silver gowns, to the familiar notes of “Pomp & Circumstance”.

Principal William Doughty got the commencement exercises under way, offering the senior class a methodical approach to success. “Sustained effort over time,” said Doughty. “It’s something you’ve shown that’s got you this far in life; remember to keep your effort up.”

Salutatorian Kaitlynn Levine spoke to her class about the dangers and symptoms of “senioritis,” a disease she feared many of her classmates might have fallen ill with.

In an emotional speech, Levine fondly looked back at her time in school and forward to what awaited her and her classmates in the future, summing up her feelings with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

Levine also took the opportunity to thank those in the class of 2007 who were entering the armed services after receiving their diplomas. “We can’t thank you enough,” she said.

She ended her speech with a call for her classmates to see their own potential. “Remember Class of 2007,” she said “that you can make a difference because someone made a difference for you.”

Glenn Cummings, speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, delivered the keynote address, which he promised to keep short, and refreshingly offbeat.

Cummings described a young, down and out man in his late 20s suffering from depression who 17 years later became president of the United States. That man was Abraham Lincoln, Cummings told the seniors.

Cummings advised students to live by what drove Lincoln to succeed. “Always believe you have something to give, and there’s no way you can’t live an amazing life.”

Class Valedictorian Alyssa Baril discussed the tight bond she felt her class had forged in their time at PRHS, a bond she was going to miss. “I feel like I belong here,” she said.

“I’ve heard that you make your best friends in college,” Baril told her fellow seniors, “but I believe that my best friends are here right in front of me.”