WINDHAM – For the first time in recent memory, the Windham High School graduation was held not at a downtown Portland venue but on school grounds in Windham Center.

The skies above the athletic complex at Windham High School on Sunday, though cloudy, held off a forecasted shower, and the school’s 116th commencement went off without a hitch.

Principal Chris Howell began the ceremony by welcoming the 216 graduates. The young men and women, dressed in maroon and white caps and gowns, straddled the 50-yard line while hundreds of parents, friends and relatives filled a grandstand as well as a large semi-circle of chairs set up on the field.

Howell said the stadium, in lieu of Windham’s usual graduation site at the Cumberland County Civic Center, which is under construction, was an apt choice since the 50-yard line was the beginning of many athletic competitions for the students. That it would also serve as the end spot of the students’ high-school careers, and where they would launch their next chapter, was “fitting,” Howell said.

Bill Diamond, a former state legislator for Windham who served as a teacher and principal in Windham for 18 years, was invited by the students as the guest speaker for the event.

Diamond centered his speech on a list of 11 commandments that he was given years ago when he served as Maine’s Secretary of State. Diamond told the graduates that of the hundreds of schools he visited as secretary, the one that made the biggest impression was a first-grade class in Raymond. After his visit, the kids sent him a list that every secretary of state should abide by. Diamond said the age-old wisdom detailed in the list was appropriate for the new graduates as they move on with their lives.

Rule No. 1, as written by the Raymond schoolchildren, was “A secretary of state has to wear a suit.” Diamond tailored the message to the assembled students: “The real world does have a dress code, graduates. Be aware of it. It’s there. That’s just the way it is.”

Rule No. 3 from the elementary school kids was: “The Secretary of State must be smart.” Diamond told graduates: “Someone once said, ‘Never try to tell everything you know. It may take too short a time.’ People can be smart in many different ways. Look for those ways, because everyone has some smart in them.”

The kids’ Rule No. 7 stated: “You must be handsome.” Diamond’s told graduates, “What they were talking about is that everyone must be handsome from within. Understand that everyone has handsomeness in them. And it’s how you feel about yourself, and the confidence you take with you.”

Rule No. 10 was “Care about everybody and also kids.” Diamond, who recently authored a book publicizing the growing scourge of child sex abuse and exploitation, said he’s thought a lot about that rule through the years, “and I say, care about everybody, especially kids. There are a lot of evil people out there ladies and gentlemen and graduates and a lot of folks who prey on innocent children, so be aware. Listen to kids. They need our protection.”

The kids’ last rule required the secretary of state to “be nice to people and be polite.”

“What a rule,” Diamond told graduates. “If you embrace this rule, your chances of success and happiness will be unlimited. This rule is contagious. It’s magical. Try to use it as much as you can.”

Salutatorian Joseph Mycock was next up to speak. He told his classmates to think before doing, referring to a phrase he would use when tutoring students: “It’s easy if you think about it.”

“True, deep, analytical and critical thought about the world around us really does make things easy. That things really are easy if you just think about them,” he said. “Simple thought, mindfulness and reason are the true tools of success.”

Alluding to the amount of horrible crime the students have seen on the news in their 18 years, Mycock said if people thought rationally about their actions before taking them, the world could be a better place.

“Our nature is impulsive and instinctive. A certain part of us can never seem to escape those primeval urges for power, wealth and violence. These urges make us natural. Our attempts to overcome them make us human,” Mycock said. “And these attempts are called thought, that defining characteristic that makes us unique among all other living things. It is thought and reason that compel us to push beyond primitive instinct and to seek out order, happiness and a higher quality of life in an otherwise chaotic and unforgiving world.”

Third honor essayist Tyler DeFosse, who finished fifth in the class of 2013, used three Rubik’s cubes, in various stages of completion, to illustrate the students’ progress so far.

“A Rubik’s Cube is very much like high school, because in high school, one must learn the tricks of the trade, so to speak, and if done successfully, graduation becomes the reward,” he said.

Second honor essayist Erin Esco, who finished fourth in the class, urged her classmates to continue their education beyond high school.

“To my classmates, feel empowered, not satisfied with your education. This diploma and the knowledge you have gained to obtain it, should serve as a foundation for you to explore your interests,” Esco said.

“I beg of you to become a lifelong learner. A curious nature and the motivation to act on it are critical to finding your happiness and success. Immerse yourself in a community of learners. Take advantage of online resources. Become well read. Culture yourself through travel. And find your hidden talent. All of the effort and time you’ve put into your education thus far would make the next 40 years of mental stagnation awfully disheartening,” Esco added.

In first honor essayist Jameson McBride’s address to graduates, he urged his classmates to find joy in all their activities, not just times spent having fun with friends.

“As we finally pause to reflect on our high-school experience, it can be tempting to discount all this time spent on commitments as time wasted. In our culture, for some reason, we feel the need to completely separate the time we spend on these commitments with the time we spend on our social lives, and similarly we’re supposed to only enjoy social time,” he said. “Yet as we look back on our packed schedules and hurried high-school lives, we should not impose this imaginary divide between time spent with friends and time spent doing necessary things.”

McBride said all of his school experiences were made better because he did them with his friends, and he urged his classmates “to carry the spirit of teamwork and community with you as you leave Windham and enter the rest of the world.”

Cole Moran, class valedictorian, warned students that they were about to enter a new world of freedom. That freedom, he said, can be a trap for those not prepared.

“Do not let the freedom you are about to receive become a prison, a force that gives you confusion and pause. Because in great confusion, we often fail to realize that the only freedom we really ever have is the freedom over ourselves,” Moran said.

He said philosophers have tried to define what freedom means and that his father, Scott Moran, and he have adopted a set of “paradoxical commandments,” written by motivational speaker and author Dr. Kent Keith. He summed up Keith’s thoughts on freedom saying, “Freedom is the choice between forgiveness and revenge. Yet still, if you’re kind like this, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you’re successful, you’ll win some false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. If you’re frank and honest, people may cheat you. Be frank and honest anyway. And the good you do people will forget tomorrow. Do good anyway.”

Moran summed up a good attitude for living for graduates.

“Go forth from this day with the knowledge that even though you cannot control life’s circumstances, you will always be able to control your response to them,” he said. “Take comfort in the fact that you have the power to forgive, the power to be kind, the power to succeed, the power to be frank and honest and the power to do good. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be good enough, but give the world the best you’ve got anyway.”

After the last diploma was handed out on Sunday, the Windham High School class of 2013 let loose with the traditional tossing of the caps.
Windham High School graduates during the class song, “Hall of Fame,” by the Script.