WELLS — At Warrior Memorial Field Sunday afternoon, caps were flying long before the end of Wells High School’s 113th commencement ceremony. While the day was sunny, a strong wind blew caps off heads and twisted the red and white gowns around the patiently waiting, soon-to-be-graduates’ legs. Principal Eileen Sheehy joked, “Now my job is […]

BIDDEFORD — It’s been 10 years since a recruiter called Danielle Ripich to inquire about her interest in the University of New England. Ten years later, the university has grown its enrollment by more than 6,000 students to more than 10,000, built new residence halls and athletic facilities, and opened a study abroad campus in […]

We were watching television one evening when a commercial came on featuring an actor who looked familiar, but I couldn’t think of his name. Since I have a kid home from college, it was the perfect opportunity to play the Celebrity Guessing Game. Me: Who is that guy? He was in that movie – you […]

The whole idea of sustainability wasn’t exactly at the forefront of my mind as a child. I only remember that every few weeks we’d pile boxes of semi-stinky recyclables in the back of our minivan and haul to our local transfer station. I recall my mother instructing us to separate plastics by number so they’d […]

 An open letter to the graduating class(es): First off, congratulations. You’re probably hearing this a lot, but as someone who’s still waiting to make it to where you are: congratulations. You made it through more or less 12 years of school, past every crisis, every meltdown, every huge test or project or assignment overload that […]

Our bodies are jerks. When we’re young, they’re seemingly invincible vessels – prone to the odd scrape or broken bone, but generally lithe and gazelle-like, spriting us from one location to the next with a bouncy newness we take for granted. Then we get older and they betray us, degenerating into a taut coil of […]