RUMFORD — “Change is scary, but that’s what makes life exciting,” Valedictorian Taylor Duguay said Thursday evening addressing fellow graduates at Mountain Valley High School.

Following a welcome by Class President Lauren Pepin, Duguay began her address by noting, “My class helped me learn that nobody stays the same. That people are supposed to grow and change … In five years, we’re not going to be the same people we are today. That’s just how life is. The bad news is that time flies. The good news is that you’re the pilot.”

She said becoming high school graduates “wasn’t something we did by closing our eyes and hoping for the best. This is something we did with blood, lots of sweat and lots and lots of tears. We took the initiative of taking control of our own destiny and we earned out spot on these bleachers — every single one of us.”

Duguay said some of her classmates will go to community college, some to universities, some into the workforce or military.

“But when you ask us where we’re going to be in 10 years, do any of us really know the answers? Hell no. But nobody is supposed to know for sure yet. Our minds are bound to change and our dreams are bound to shift,” she said.

Duguay said, “I think for all of us, change is the scariest part of all of this. It’s knowing deep down inside that life isn’t going to be the same as it’s been in the last 13 years. It’s not knowing what is yet to come.”

While watching the senior slide show the previous night, she said, “I felt an overwhelming sense of pride. Pride over the people we have become while I got to look back on the people we once were. Pride over the fact that I got to grow and change with this lovely group of students right here.”

The senior class continued the tradition of handing a trinket to the principal when receiving their diplomas. This year, the pockets of Principal Tom Danylik were filled with pacifiers because their leader welcomed a new baby this year.

The commencement concluded with the Class of 2022 singing “Good Old Days,” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

The majority of the Class of 2022 then boarded a bus for a Project Graduation party at FunZ Trampoline Park in Lewiston.

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