AUGUSTA — On an evening that felt more like early April than early June, Lauren Garand and her 87 Oak Hill High School classmates waited at the Augusta Civic Center for the call to line up to start their march to the future.

Friends and family marshaled their younger children, hugged their graduates-to-be and handed out bunches of red roses in the minutes leading up to the start of the ceremony. As they filed into the main auditorium to take their seats, the high school band readied for its performance.

For the 18-year-old from Litchfield, Monday’s commencement marked the close to one chapter in her life and the start of the next.

Garand’s high school accomplishments are spelled out on the white stole she wore to signify her membership in the National Technical Honor Society and the pins it bore showing her four years as a cheerleader. The gold cords testified to Garand achieving a 3.0 grade point average and the white cords showed she achieved an 85 average with 27 credits.

Among the standard benchmarks of commencement ceremonies — playing Pomp and Circumstance, awarding scholarships and diplomas, and cheering — memories from the four years the students spent together emerged.

Salutatorian Anna Dodge identified herself as the girl in middle school who dressed every day as a boy and played football. Once she entered high school, she said, she was scared what people would think of her, so she changed her style — something that lasted about a year before she reverted to sweatpants. It is, she said, who she is.

“In a few short months we’ll be packing up our boxes and moving away,” she said. “We have all been looking forward to this day. Now that it’s come, I’m so scared for the future.”

That future includes taking on the responsibilities of adulthood. Even as that happens, she counseled her classmates: “Don’t let others stop you from doing the things you love. The future will be stressful. Just remember to be yourself.”

Valedictorian Michaela Gervais shared a little of what she had learned — the importance of carrying on even when you forget an entire verse of a song you’re singing in the school play as a freshman.

“Was it embarrassing? Yes. Was it scarring? Definitely a little bit, but I got cast in other parts. You have to try your best and go with the flow, which is hard for me, because I am a stubborn person,” she said.

And while she did well academically, she pulled back the cover a little and revealed that she was a procrastinator, delaying projects until the night before they were due. Sometimes, she said, you have to fake it until you make it.

“If you’re going to be a mess, be a hot mess,” she said.

Oak Hill High School seniors display their mortarboards Monday before graduation at the Augusta Civic Center. (Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal)

Copy the Story Link