The Fort Kent Community High School gym was packed with family and friends as 72 students graduated. Student speakers at the ceremony looked back on their entire school careers while emphasizing the importance of staying true to oneself and compassion for others.
Graduate Katherine Michaud delivered the commencement speech after Tessa Bourgoin performed the National Anthem and Principal Steve Doucette welcomed everyone in attendance. Michaud reflected on how quickly she and her classmates have gone from elementary school to marching at graduation.
“I remember sitting in the locker room as a freshman after our last basketball game of the season, listening to a senior say, ‘I wish I could trade places with you,’” Michaud said. “At the time, I thought four years sounded like forever. Then suddenly, I blinked and I owe the school money for multiple lost chargers.”
Michaud also encouraged her fellow graduates to embrace their individuality, and to not try to fit into a mold based on others’ expectations. She said the entire class is built on the uniqueness of each student.
“If I had continued to wish I were more like others, I wouldn’t have realized, with the help of my parents, that being me is enough and so is being you,” she said.
Tobias Naranja spoke about how this year, the school’s basketball team made history by winning its first state championship. The trophy isn’t what means the most to Naranja, but the time spent with his team, the support from his community, and the journey up to that point.
“It was the sound of that gym, louder than I had ever heard it before,” he said. “It was the younger kids in the stands, watching like they could already see themselves out there someday. It was the realization that we were part of something bigger than ourselves. In that moment, it wasn’t just our win, it was everyone’s.”
He said that success never happens alone, and that it is instead due to the help of teachers, parents, friends, and coaches that he and his classmates can see the potential in themselves.
“This is what makes this class special,” he said. “We showed up for each other.”
Speaker Haidyn Saucier urged her classmates to not give into negativity.
“It becomes easy to hate, easy to criticize, easy to compare, easy to hold grudges over mistakes, words said in anger, or moments we wish we could take back,” she said. “We hate others for their actions, their choices, or even just their differences.”
Saucier said that love, on the other hand, is not passive or weak, but something found throughout the school every day. She said it is shown through Principal Steve Doucette’s morning announcements, through the engagement of their teachers, and small gestures like holding the door for someone or sitting next to someone who looks like they need company.
“Love is always a choice,” she said. “And even when it’s not the easiest one, it is always the right one.”
Principal Doucette handed academic awards and Guidance Counselor Catherine Sevigny announced scholarships. Diplomas were given out by Dean of Students Donald Choinard, Doucette, and Superintendent Ben Sirois.
