WESTBROOK – For a while last Friday, it seemed like Westbrook High School might have to wait another year to hold its first outdoor graduation in decades.
A little under an hour before the scheduled 6 p.m. start at the school’s Olmsted Field, a huge storm rolled in, turning the sky black and dumping heavy rain and pea-sized hail onto the crowd gathered there.
With the class of 2012 in the gym trying to keep their caps and gowns dry and gathering for one last group photo, school officials were faced with a tough choice: whether to move the ceremony to the Westbrook Performing Arts Center, which would have delayed things for an hour or two while the venue was set up, or to try and wait out the weather and hope for the best.
After gathering in a small room just off the gym, Principal Thomas O’Malley, Superintendent Marc Gousse and representatives from the Westbrook School Committee emerged and announced that they were going to wait things out to hold the ceremony on the football field as planned.
They were soon rewarded for their perseverance as the skies began to clear. Hurriedly, school staff rushed out to the field to dry the stage and the chairs and finish the last-minute prep work on things like the sound system and stage decorations. And, at around 6:30, the crowd of friends and family at the field erupted in cheers as the seniors emerged from the gym and began the procession to the field.
Led by class marshals Nicole Nutter and Fred Thompson, the Westbrook High School class of 2012 filed onto the field, which was painted with a large “2012” at the front of the stage, as the scoreboard clock continued the motif reading a time 20:12 and showing a score of 20-12 (with Westbrook winning, naturally).
Gabrielle Ledue, senior class president, opened the ceremony by remarking on just how quickly four years had passed, though it didn’t always seem that way.
“For a lot of us, when we entered high school, I don’t think we could have pictured where we would be four years from then,” Ledue said. “Four years seemed like an incredibly long period of time. Each day at school seemed to drag on. A minute felt like an hour, an hour seemed like a day and a day felt like an entire week. We were told that the years would fly by, but we brushed that off. To us, we had all the time in the world. But tonight, our time at Westbrook High School is coming to a close, and looking back, I can’t believe how quickly it flew by.”
Ledue told her classmates that while one chapter of their lives was coming to a close at Olmsted Field that night, a new one was just getting under way.
“It is our time now,” she said. “The pages in this next chapter are blank, and you get to write your own story. So dream big and set your goals high, because all of us are capable of more than we can imagine.”
Alex Stone of the Westbrook School Committee echoed Ledue’s sentiments, telling the class of 2012 that “the journey is not over.”
“Albert Einstein once said, ‘The important thing is not to stop questioning,’” Stone said. “Please don’t stop questioning what your future can be. Please don’t stop believing in your own abilities, strengths and skills. Believe in yourself. You just completed the hardest part of your life and did it with your heads held high. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t always fun, but you did it.”
Honor essayist Gabrielle Crouse got a laugh from the crowd when she approached the microphone, exclaiming “oh, weird,” after hearing her voice echo through the PA system. With a smile, she quickly got on track and told her classmates that while they may not remember her speech “10 minutes from now,” they would remember high school for the rest of their lives, and those experiences from high school would shape their lives.
“It all matters,” she said. “Everything you do in the world matters. The small moments that may seem insignificant matter. The smile you give someone in the hallway, standing up for something that you believe in, when everyone that surrounds you is against it, or just being kind to anyone that you come into contact with. Those are the things that matter.”
Salutatorian Hannah Gowen looked back on the start of freshman year, when the class of 2012 sat in the cafeteria doing team-building exercises that, at the time, many thought weren’t that important.
“But it was important,” Gowen said. “It built the foundation for the relationships we needed to make this class work. Over the next three years, we learned and laughed, somehow managing to conquer all the obstacles that were thrown our way.”
Gowen said that she believed that even after the class scatters following graduating, those bonds could be kept strong.
“I don’t think we could have made it this far without the friendships we created over the past four years,” she said. “Friendship is about accepting someone, the good and the bad. It’s about knowing when you need someone, they’ll be there to support you. It’s about encouraging one another to be the best they can be”
Valedictorian Mikala Varela reflected on the fact that all throughout their school careers in Westbrook, the class knew just what was ahead, but now, as graduates, things are less certain.
“For the past 13 years, we have walked the halls of Westbrook schools together, knowing exactly what was going to happen next,” Varela said. “We knew that we would be moving from middle school to high school, from algebra to geometry, or from first to second period. Now, as we enter a new chapter of our lives, there is uncertainty. The uncertainty of whether we will stay connected with our friends, whether we will be able to find jobs when we get out of colleges, or what our lives will be like in 20 years.”
However, Varela said, the class of 2012 has the courage to face the future and succeed.
“In reality, nothing is ever too scary to face,” Varela said. “I know each and every one of you has the courage to leave this school and succeed in the world with a feeling of pride. Yes, you will still fear the unknown, just as you did when you first entered (high school), but know there is nothing you cannot achieve without some hard work and perseverance.”
Soon, it was time for the diplomas to be handed out, and as each member of the class walked across the stage, friends and family in the crowd yelled and cheered, and the camera flashes were reminiscent of the lightning flashes that ripped through the sky before the ceremony.
Fortunately, the rain held off to allow all the graduates to get their diplomas, but before they left the field, the class had one surprise for the crowd. Befitting the setting of Westbrook’s football field, a member of the senior class got up on stage, took the microphone and led the class in the raucous chant of “B-L-A-Z-E-S,” that should be familiar to anyone attending a sporting event at the school.
And instead of a touchdown or a 3-point basket, this time the cheer was met with thrown hats and hugs as the 143 graduates of Westbrook High School class of 2012 began the next step in their life’s journey as newly minted high school graduates.
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