LIVERMORE FALLS — Laughter, cheers and a few tears accompanied Spruce Mountain High School’s graduation Sunday afternoon at a wet Griffin Field in Livermore Falls.

Principal TJ Plourde welcomed seniors, staff members and guests. He asked the seniors to remember several firsts throughout their educational journey, and their responses to them. “You will remember this day for your entire life,” he said. “I remember you as a freshman, ready for a new adventure and willing to take risks. If you never take risks you may never have those first days that are filled with excitement. You may never feel like that big kid again. So take the risks.”

Plourde said everyone would remember this graduation because of the rain. Tents were set up and tarps draped over the chairs where seniors were to sit, to try to keep things dry. The rain did let up during most of the ceremony itself.

Faith Maurais, valedictorian and class president, said there was one thing she learned throughout the trials of high school she felt the most fitting to share. “This simple idea that I am going to share with you may not change your life this very second, but I hope that when you face challenges in your future, you remember my next few words,” she noted. “Everything you will ever face in life can be overcome by a change of mindset.”

Situations and struggles faced will change, Maurais stressed. “Mindset is about understanding that it is OK to ask for help,” she said. “It is also about understanding that it’s also OK to fail. There are some things in life that you cannot change, but it is up to you to grow and change your mindset when you think of how they control you. Your mistakes, your imperfections, your anxieties, your depression, your fear and your trauma does not define you. So don’t let it. It is important to not create a mindset for yourself that you must always succeed, because it is often in our moments of failure that we have the most growth.”

She shared the mantra which has helped her: When life feels impossible, look back and see that you have done the “impossible.” “Nothing is impossible if you have the right mindset and the ability to push through it,” Maurais noted. “This strength comes from you. If you change your mindset, you can achieve the impossible.”

Leah Burgess, salutatorian, spoke of having to capture the entire audience and include things everyone can relate to when preparing a graduation speech. “When I started to think about this, the most obvious of all came to mind, but it is the most telling about why and how every single one of us is here today,” she said. “We grew up.”

“We yearned to be older, wiser, stronger,” Burgess said. “We grew up anxiously waiting for the bell to ring at the beginning and end of each period, then rushing off to games, practices, work, or quite literally anywhere but school.”

The seniors grew up facing unforeseen difficulties which made them stronger and more resilient, Burgess said. “Through experiencing the unknowns of COVID during our first year of high school, multiple anxiety-inducing weapon threats disturbing our days in the classroom, the flooding and destruction of community roads and buildings that connect us, and the tragic losses of family members and classmates, our class has faced it all while still maintaining the end goal of reaching this day,” she said.

What seniors did not realize, Burgess said, was how fast they were growing up: the whole 13 years flew by and now those days had come to the very end. “The growing we did through every second of these years was beautiful,” she said. “We grew up making cherished memories that will last a lifetime.”

Burgess then shared three lessons learned to move into the future:

• These 13 years have flown by. Live in the moment to slow time down.

• Mistakes and failure will happen. Use them as fuel to do better, learn from them.

• Life’s path is not linear. Take moments of vulnerability and change to become stronger achievers of goals.

Plourde called attention to scholarship recipients listed in the program. “Each year I am blown away by this community and the generosity they show for our graduates,” he said. “This year our students received over $350,000. Our community is a very giving community.”