Getting his diploma Thursday night, Cody Roberts set the Stover Auditorium audience laughing when he paused and gave a wide smile for a selfie; Sam Whitney got loud applause when social studies teacher Mary Ellen Bell announced he’d chosen to serve his country in the military; and under a night sky afterward, near the steps of Wiscasset Middle High School, new graduate Sharon Lane, still in her red cap and gown, was beaming as she held son Ryker, almost 3 months, in her arms.

Wiscasset’s amazing people and sense of community give the town its character, senior essayist Brooke Carleton Wagstaff told fellow class members on stage. “It makes Wiscasset our home, our roots,” roots the class is lucky to have, she added at another point.

The class has embraced Wiscasset’s small town ways, she said. “Whether it’s seeing your neighbors cheer at a local sporting event or not being able to walk through the grocery store without being stopped and talked to by a friend. All of these tiny aspects of Wiscasset make the Class of 2017 who we are today.”

Her mother Erin Haggett thought her daughter’s speech was great. Wagstaff didn’t tell her about it in advance. “It was a surprise,” Haggett said, smiling after the ceremony.

Brianna Goud was on stage as valedictorian in 2014. Thursday night, she was in the audience for brother Brandon Goud’s graduation. It definitely made her feel older, to have him graduating and herself be a year away from graduating from the University of New England in Biddeford, she said in an interview. But she was happy for him to be graduating and moving on to college, where, with his big personality, she said, “I think that he is going to click.”

She liked being back and seeing everyone. “(Graduation) is like a big event for the town, because everyone knows everyone.” Their father Duane Goud, interviewed separately, said his children’s high school years have gone by very quickly. “They grow up so quick,” he added.

Clara Mugnai of Alna joined other juniors in greeting and handing out programs to attendees. Looking toward the stage from the hallway door, she said the thought of it being her turn next year was a little scary. “It’s also just kind of crazy – that year is going to go by so fast.” Classmate Ayanna Main had a front row seat next to great-grandfather Eugene Stover, a school committee member who long worked for the Wiscasset schools. She was there to spend time with him and to see friends graduate, she said.

Seated at Stover’s other side talking with him before the ceremony was a former student of his, Jeffrey Hunter. “Four years, he had to put up with me,” Hunter said, laughing.

Outside after graduating, Class of 2017 member Kayla Torgersen said she was feeling pretty good. It was hot in there, she added. Torgensen said college is next; the seniors had already had their class trip to Six Flags. She planned to spend the coming days with family, including relatives visiting from South Carolina.

Minutes after graduating, Nate Woodman, in the crowd on the steps and at the curb, said the experience was “Nuts, honestly.” Like some other classmates interviewed, he said his favorite part of the ceremony was just getting through it.

Before and after the ceremony, parents and grandparents spoke of being both excited and sad, and looking forward to their graduates’ futures. “We’re just really happy,” Alex Hendrickson’s paternal grandmother Patricia Hendrickson, with husband Howard Hendrickson, said. “He’s done a lot of work to get to this point,” Howard Hendrickson said of his grandson.

Bell noted in her speech, the seniors had handled a lot of change over their high school years. “They started in RSU 12 and have ended in the Wiscasset School Department,”  had three principals, three vice-principal-athletic directors, four superintendents and been there as the school became a middle high, Bell said. “This class has proven their perseverance ... and they have adapted with humor and grace.”

In her essay, valedictorian and class marshal Gabrielle Chapman said graduation showed class members how capable they were of reaching their goals. “I hope all of us here today can take this personal accomplishment and as an example of how anything is truly possible when we put our minds to it ...” she continued. “Nothing worthwhile is easy, but that doesn’t mean we give up on ourselves. We keep pushing ... Dare to go that extra mile,” she told them. “Dare to show kindness and compassion. Dare to make your mark in the world.”

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