WINDHAM – At Windham High School’s 117th Commencement ceremony, held at the Cumberland County Civic Center on Sunday afternoon, the 228 members of the class of 2014 were offered a range of existential meditations on failure, life, death and the pursuit of perfection.

Sarah Eastman, the class salutatorian, encouraged her classmates to embrace a broader perspective, in the face of their inevitable mortality.

“Why, if we have precious little time in this world, why would we spend so much time and energy worrying about the things we cannot change, or do not matter?” Eastman said. “High school is just a short period of time in our lives. It doesn’t have to be the turning point of how the rest of our lives will play out. We will not forever be the jocks or the cheerleaders or the thespians or nerds, or just plain awkward teenagers. We can grow and we can change.”

Eastman exhorted the members of the class of 2014 to abandon not only their juvenile anxieties, but their ambitions to affect the world at large. It is better, she said, to focus on the small moments of beauty that make life worth living.

“Once we are freed from worrying about making an impact on this world, we can focus on the little things in life that make living on this huge hunk of rock bearable, like falling in love, making someone laugh, helping out a friend or complete stranger, stopping to admire the beauty of nature,” Eastman said. “These are the important things in life. A lifetime can be lived in these simple moments. Yet, we get distracted by such things as jobs, money, war, TV, and social media. We create these distractions to keep ourselves from being bored as we hurtle around the sun clinging to this hunk of rock. But, in the end, these distractions are meaningless.”

Johanna Stanley, the class of 2014’s Third Honor Essayist, deconstructed the notion that humans can perfect themselves.

“I think all of us have learned not to take life too seriously,” Stanley said. “After all, we’re not going to make it out alive. Perfection is something that many people strive for but no one has ever accomplished. The idea of perfection itself is imperfect. It’s so counterproductive the way that it traps people, because they don’t want to move on until they’ve reached perfection, but they never reach perfection, so they never move on.”

Stanley said Dr. Rick Nickerson, the director of choral music at Windham High School, had taught her how to embrace the inevitability of imperfection.

“One of my favorite quotes on the subject comes from Dr. Nickerson, who always tells the (Windham) Chamber Singers, ‘Every time you sing a wrong note, God kills a kid.’ He does this to make us laugh, and to let us know that we don’t have to be so uptight and precise. We are allowed to have fun, take chances and it won’t kill us to sing a wrong note every once in awhile.”

Lauren Doering, the graduating class’ First Honor Essayist, proposed that graduates (and their parents) stop thinking so narrowly about future success.

“I can safely say that for the past couple of weeks, all the questions for the graduates have been what are your plans after high school and how do you plan on being successful?” Doering said. “I’d like to switch the focus away from success and ask the class of 2014, ‘How are you going to fail?’”

Failure, Doering said, lays the groundwork for success. Falling comes before walking, she said. Yet, failure is considerable intolerable in contemporary society, as Doering sees it.

“In today’s society, ‘fail’ is viewed as another offensive four-letter word beginning with ‘f,’” she said. “But we cannot allow a fear of failing to make us inactive, because fear of error impairs the ability to learn. I can promise the class of 2014 that each of you will make mistakes and I encourage you to do so. I encourage you to make tons of mistakes and take risks and show no fear in the face of error. Your risks may lead to adversity, but handling adversity builds character.”

The first graduation cap starts to rise as the Windham High School class of 2014 concludes their commencement ceremony at the Cumberland County Civic Center. Windham High School Athletic Director Rich Drummond watches the parade of graduates march to the stage.Class valedictorian Bradley Meader began his speech by urging his classmates to take risks as they made their way through life. And to show he could walk the talk, he then sang the rest of his address, earning a standing ovation from attendees. Jonathan Brockelbank sports a patriotic bow tie under his cap and gown.