RUMFORD — “Live in the moment.”

That was Valedictorian Layce Boucher’s message to the class of 2025 at graduation ceremonies Thursday evening at Mountain Valley High School

“To stand here as a graduate is an unbelievable feeling,” she said. “We can reflect on the adults around us — teachers, mentors and parents — urging us to seize the moment in high school because it goes by like nothing. At the time, we didn’t believe them. In fact, many of us felt like it couldn’t go by any slower. And yet, here we are. It seems like, in a blink of an eye, the end has arrived.”

Boucher said, “Whether your high school experience was everything you hoped for or more challenging than you expected, we all share one common, undeniable fact: we made it. It truly is astonishing to think about how fast we grew up without even realizing it.”

She mentioned that as long as they can remember, they wanted to grow up.

“We wished for later bedtimes, fewer rules and more freedom. But now, as we reach adulthood, many of us realize the value of the moments we once took for granted,” she said. “I think most of us can agree on the fact that saying ‘I can’t wait until I grow up’ might have been the dumbest thing you ever said.”

There is no regret, she said.

“This is the day of celebration of pride and achievement. No matter the process you took, the challenges you faced, or the path you traveled to get here, you made it. We may have arrived in different ways, but we stand together at the same destination,” she said.

“Be proud of yourself,” she told graduates. “Your presence here tonight is proof of your work, dedication and growth. If there’s one message I leave with you today, it is to live in the moment. Cherish the final steps across the stage before for some of us, this may be the final day of sharing with classmates that we’ve grown up with for the past 12 years.”

And, she added, “As you turn your tassels tonight, know that even though in many ways it feels like the end, it is just as much the end as it is the beginning, because life doesn’t end when you graduate high school.”

The ceremony concluded with graduates turning the tassels on their caps, then hurling them into the air before singing “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield.