Editor’s note: To send the class of 2012 off into the world, we revise a 2008 editorial, which we believe holds true for the latest group of Midcoast high school graduates.

The caps and gowns are back in storage. The ink on another year’s worth of high school diplomas has dried.

This year’s high school commencement season is over. After the newest troupe of Morse High School alumni trooped off the stage at Sunday’s graduation ceremony, every member of every local class of 2012 had bid adieu to high school life.

It’s a moment that must not go unrecognized. Congratulations to every student in the Mid-coast region’s class of 2012 — and to the families, educators and community supporters who helped them earn their diplomas. Graduation from high school represents a significant accomplishment, one that should not be diminished and can never be taken away.

Parents, peers and principals attempted to send the class of 2012 into the world with words of inspiration and wisdom. Valedictorians and other honored speakers peppered their orations with Shakespearean elocution and truisms from history’s most accomplished thinkers. They shared advice from great minds ranging from Dale Carnegie to Harry Potter.

There’s little more that can augment such an overwhelming inventory of insights, other than a favorite gem of diploma-day wisdom from a man who’s clearly establishing his place among the pantheon of the 21st century’s cultural revolutionaries: Stephen Colbert.

In a June 3, 2006, address to the graduating class at Knox College in Illinois, Colbert tapped his work in an improvisational comedy theater to advocate for what he called the “yes-and” approach to life.

In short, the technique requires a comic to say “yes” to every situation presented to him or her as a sketch evolves. After saying “yes,” each member of the troupe adds to the humor of the improvisation by adding his or her own comic perspective to the sketch.

“Say ‘yes’ as often as you can,” Colbert advised. “To build anything on stage, you have to accept what the other improviser initiates.”

Embedded in Colbert’s satirical description of adult life as a long-running comedy sketch can be found a profound message: Saying “yes” opens doors — and the opportunities behind them. Saying “no” closes doors — and creates self-imposed limits.

Saying “no” puts each of us in the position to quash our own dreams, to dash our own hopes. The modern world holds enough challenges for the class of 2012. Self-sabotage brought on by pessimism will only heighten the burden.

So to the new high school graduates plunging into the next act of the improvisational exercise that is adult life, we say, “Say ‘yes’ — and (think of something that would go one better than Colbert’s imagination).”

We also say “yes — thank you,” for as high school students you have enriched our lives with your achievements, your spirit, your vigor, your youthful perspectives and countless other contributions to the Mid-coast community.

Oh, “yes, — and good luck” to the class of 2012.