Saturday morning was the day that the class of 2018 has been waiting for, for the last 18 years, their high school graduation. The class got to hear many great speeches and got a lot of great advice about communication, always striving for improvement and learning from the past.

“Communication is everything,” said Superintendent Brian Forget. “Your ability to effectively communicate is the number one determinant of your impact in this world,” Forget continued, them to “remember that you have an individual, unique voice and our world needs it more than ever.”

He also reflected back on the year and how it has been different from others. “It has been one heck of a year,” said Forget to the Triton Class of 2018. “Your senior year was the shortest by total school days of any class we could find on record, my personal gift to the class of 2018.”

A 2007 Triton high school graduate, Bethany Emerson Durkee,  came back to give the graduates some advice also. “Don’t settle for good, don’t settle for great, don’t even settle for extraordinary,” she said. “Strive for continuous and consistent improvement day over day and the best opportunities will come knocking at your door.”

Salutatorian, Haley Morgan delivered a speech that focused on the past. “Let the past be lesson and from the times you’ve skipped an experience, in hopes for a better one to come along, or failed to live in the moment because it wasn’t the moment you had pictured,” Morgan said. “A imperfect experience is better than none at all and I thinks it’s safe to say, that Triton is one of the most perfectly imperfect experiences we will get to have.”

“We can’t predict the future. But we can control our lives,” said Valedictorian, Hannah Burd, who  focused on the future in her speech. “Pursue your passion. If you don’t know it yet, go out and find it. You’re so lucky to be alive, here, at this point in time- where each of you has the power to influence the world through your voice, work, or day-to-day actions. Your opportunities are limited to only what you can imagine. So imagine deeply and imagine brightly. Please, never forget that you can control the way that you, and we, experience life.”

As the class of 2018 waited for their diplomas, some said they enjoyed listening to the speeches and advice they were being given. “I really enjoyed listening to the speeches, I usually doze off during things like that but I actually listened and even got a little sad listening to Haley’s speech,” said graduate Julia Plummer.

Some enjoyed that Morgan included stories about the class in her speech.  “I like Haley’s speech because it included funny stories about our times at Triton, and it was kind of informal in a way that made it relatable and sweet,” said graduate Carly McDonald.

“The speeches were definitely essential to our everyday lives and made us think about our future life choices,” graduate said Alessandra Basile. The speeches definitely had an impact of everyone but Basile’s favorite part was “cheering on my friends and watching us all make it together.”

Just before the students received their diplomas, the class officers presented their class gift.  Their gift was to donate money toward the renovations of the lunchroom courtyard.

Nerissa Wallen, chairperson of the school committee, then awarded the class with their diplomas with assistance from Forget and Class Advisers, Ms.Erin Dempsey and Ms.Aimee Mansfield. After all the diplomas were distributed, Ruggere called the class officers to the front of the podium and the class finally got to move their tassels from right to left and toss their caps in the air.

“It felt unreal to finally get to move my tassel and throw my cap in the air,” said Plummer. “We finally finished. It’s over.”