RANGELEY — Rangeley Lakes Regional School celebrated the Class of 2025 Saturday afternoon as hundreds of people packed the school gymnasium to watch the 13 graduates receive their diplomas. 

Guest speaker Craig Sargent had graduates move from the stage to the audience so he could face them as he shared lessons on life, finances and change.

“One of the things you need to do is adapt,” Sargent said. “Change is constant. It is the one thing you can be sure is coming to you in these next decades. Freedom and independence is something you will have a lot more of. With freedom comes choice. There are only two ways the choice can work. Either works out well or it doesn’t work out well. If it doesn’t work out well, I hope it doesn’t take too long to realize you need to maybe get on a different course of action.”

Sargent spoke about the challenges of life and encouraged graduates to dream and aim for doing their best.

“Life is not easy but keep climbing to the top,” he said. “If that means you climb to the top being a janitor, be the best janitor you can be. Money is important but health is more important. Dreaming is healthy but doing is very important.”

In closing, Sargent handed silver dollars to graduates and staff. The school’s tradition of a slideshow featuring student photos through the years began when Sargent spoke at the 1995 graduation, he said. 

“This is not to replace the photos, it is to supplement them,” he said. “Perhaps this will be a new tradition at Rangeley Lakes Regional School.”

Salutatorian Nichole Lemay said, “When we first started school our backpacks were bigger than we were. Our worries were about snack time and recess. Graduation felt far away.

“Somehow that far away day is here,” he said. “After today we won’t walk through those doors as students again. Sadly, it may be the last time we are all together face to face. Life will pull us in different directions.”

She said preparing for graduation the past few weeks brought the class closer together, for which which she was thankful.

Looking back, she said, “These chaotic moments made our years together so special. I wouldn’t trade any of it. Thank you for the memories and the laughter.”

Valedictorian Jacob Bottcher spoke about a watch his grandparents gave him for Christmas a few years ago. The watch was simple but had a quote engraved on the back, he said.

“Time is relative; its only worth depends on what we are doing as it passes,” he said.

“I was too focused on the future to think about what that really meant,” he said. “Most of high school, I was locked in from the start. Valedictorian, AP classes, college credits, perfect grades were the goals. That was the point of high school for me. For a while, it felt like it was the only thing that mattered to me.”

He said he missed out on a lot of moments and declined taking part in many activities and plans because of those goals.

“It wasn’t until recently that I began to understand what I had been overlooking,” he explained. 

He talked about recent moments of connection with classmates. Moments such as the senior class trip when students sat around the fire not doing anything except talking, laughing and being together; or when a visit from friends one afternoon turned into conversations lasting until midnight.

“Suddenly, that quote made more sense,” Bottcher said. “Time isn’t valuable because you fill it with accomplishments. It is valuable because you fill it with meaning. That meaning isn’t always found in the big moments. Sometimes it is in the quiet moments, the ones you can’t put on a resume.

“Those moments stay with you and remind you of what actually matters. Success isn’t just about checking boxes. It is about who you become along the way and who you share it with. As we move forward to whatever comes next, I hope we don’t forget the value of the time that we have. To the Class of 2025, let’s move forward with purpose and spend our time well.”

Receiving diplomas were Lemay, Bottcher, Gracie Feeney, Alexis Foley, Brooke Laliberte, Zachary Madrid, Anastasia Orazi, Ryder Sargent, Parker Smith, Mason Stevens, Natalie Stokes, Brayden Thompson and Anthony Whittier.

More than $100,00 in scholarships were awarded to graduates.