POLAND — The banner suspended above the stage at the far end of the Poland Regional High School gymnasium bore the dictum attributed to Lao Tzu: “A Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with a Single Step.”

Beneath this banner paraded the proud 111 members of the Class of 2013, their journeys just begun.

“We can change the world, one step at a time,” Paige Brousseau and Amanda Gibson called out in unison in their welcome to those who packed the gymnasium despite Sunday afternoon’s oppressive humidity.

If this sounded brave, it was, and quite in keeping with Superintendent of Schools Mike Wilhelm’s assessment of the school’s 14th graduating class, and indeed Dr. Wilhelm did include “courageous” and “ambitious” in his description of what he termed a class of distinction.

In her salutatory address Sally Littlefield adopted Jimmy Fallon’s “Thank You” notes, complete with postscripts — and sometimes post postscripts — as her format for thanking the people who had helped, guided, pushed, encouraged and otherwise had a hand in bringing each of the graduates this far.

And to “our parents,” she added the postscript: “P.S. But don’t think you’ve gotten rid of us. We’ll still be calling or texting you for advice and with requests … for you to do our laundry, to edit our term papers … and, oh, yes, for money.”

Class Valedictorian Zoe Leino began by noting the conflict inherent in graduating, the whole-hearted leap beyond one’s comfort zone both liberating and terrifying.

“Finding one’s place in society is harder than it sounds,” Leino said, “Many of us don’t have the slightest clue where we want to be in 10 years.”

Leino donned a number of hats, representative of a number of possible life choices and aspirations of paths that various members of the Class of 2013 will doubtless follow, to illustrate just how open the future is.

“You can be anyone, wear any hat, be any character you want to be,” Leino said.

Keynote speaker Colleen Quint echoed the theme of life as a journey toward becoming, urging the young graduates to challenge themselves in new ways.

“What you do in this life is up to you, this is your journey,” Quint said.

And to those not quite sure of who it is they want to be, Quint recommended they plunge ahead, action to be preferred to inaction.

“Find a cause, be part of something bigger than yourself, pitch in and help,” Quint said. “You will find what you want to be.”

Future plans of the Class of 2013 include service in virtually all branches of the U.S. military and continuing their educations at some 40 different colleges and universities.