By Ward Peck

Editor

    With the flip of a tassel and diplomas firmly in
hand and proud parents, smartly dressed siblings and envious
underclassmen the South Portland and Cape Elizabeth high schools’ Class
of 2007 made the transformation from high school student to high school
graduate on Sunday. The graduation ceremonies took place under dry
skies and an unfamiliarly blazing sun– Cape Elizabeth’s at Fort
Williams Park and South Portland’s at the football field behind the
school. While the venues and programs differed, the revelry and
excitement buzzing among the graduates and spectators was universal.

    At Fort Williams, speeches and honors bestowed were
regularly punctuated by whoops and cheers from the soon-to-be graduates
seated on the crumbling concrete bleachers facing officer’s row. In
South Portland the men and women clad in red and white, respectively
sat largely silent as inflatable balls and toys mischievously bounced
from side to side and front to back, the scene framed by the large
petroleum storage tanks some distance behind them.

    In Cape Elizabeth the graduating class was both
congratulated and admonished by Principal Jeff Shedd for being smart at
times and immature at others. Valedictorian Katherine Yousa implored
them to recognize their gifts and use them wisely; generously pointing
out that she was not alone in achieving success. Class speaker Matthew
Oakes provided lighthearted anecdotes about his classmates, reflecting
the intimacy only possible among a group pf people who have spent the
past four or eight or 12 years in the same schools. But the ceremony
had its serious moments as well. Faculty speaker Dwight Ely recounted
his painfully personal, sometimes gruesome, experiences as a combat
solider in Vietnam and placed that experience in a larger geopolitical
timeline marked by lies, double crosses and secret agreements. Although
Ely did not make a direct connection to the current conflict in Iraq,
the curious Class of 2007, as Ely described them, must have wondered if
that connection was implied.

    In South Portland, it was the Class of 2007’s day
and they did not share the stage with anyone else. From the welcoming
address delivered by Class President Brianna Jaro to the four essays
written and recited by the classes top scholars Emily Libby, Angela
Giordano Salutatorian Kyle Hemes and Valedictorian Alexander
Latendresse, the focus did not waiver from the graduates’ past
accomplishments and the promises of the future– which for more than 80
percent of the 221 graduates, include continuing their education.