READFIELD -- In a gym jammed with well-wishers, 127 students presented roses to their parents and others who raised them. It was a quiet moment during Sunday's graduation ceremony at Maranacook Community High School.

Tracey Hewitt of Readfield stood with camera in hand, ready to take a photo of Tiffany Mitchell, who is like a daughter to her. For Hewitt, the experience brought back memories of her own graduation from Maranacook in 1984, a school she considers "very special."

Mitchell's father, Mike, also stood by, camera at the ready. He said Tiffany will attend the University of Maine at Augusta, where she hopes to study nursing.

Tracey Hewitt's son, Adam, graduated in 2005, and wanted to see his girlfriend, Tiffany, graduate. But he had to work.

Jordan Perry, 15, skateboarded from his home to school where his brother, Aaron Perry, is a senior. "I had to see my brother graduate," he said.

Of the Class of 2007, the school reports that 71 percent of seniors will attend a four-year college, and 13 percent will enroll in a one- or two-year college. Three percent of seniors are enlisting in the military, and the remaining 13 percent are joining the workforce or other programs.

Salutatorian Jeffrey Goggin joked with his classmates, suggesting they could be "still jealous because Steve Bates got the lead in The Sound of Music," or they could "remember being good at math, then hearing about connected math."

Maybe, he suggested, "You're still peeling from sunburn on Senior Skip Day." Or maybe "hearing the song 'I Touch Myself' puts a smile on your face." Or, "You have the ability to have your computer crash the night before your paper is due."

English teacher Susan Melcher demonstrated her virtuosity with words, invoking, in fact, a veritable volume of "v" words in a zany essay on, well, enjoying life and making the most of it.

She said students are given a script that says "behave, excel, get a job." While that is good advice, it's also important to follow your passion, and "often the two don't coincide."

She talked about a favorite subject, Shakespeare, and pointed out that he took ideas and emotions that were not new, but he made them his own. Melcher encouraged graduates to take their scripts and embrace them, make them their own. "Maybe your passions will pursue you."

Dr. Carol Fritz, principal at Maranacook, told students, "We hope that you will return and share your stories." She thanked seniors for making her first year on the job a gratifying one.

She read a poem by Rod McKuen, "The Coming of the Rain":

How can I have grown so old

without once swinging on a vine?

Did you think of party

dresses and high school plays

or hallways full of lovers

not yet met?

The mind is such a junkyard;

it remembers candy bars

but not the Gettysburg

Address.

Frank Sinatra's middle name

but not the day your best

friend died.

If in your mind there is some

corner not yet occupied with

numbers you may never need,

remind your memory of the day

we turned to watch the rain

and turning back forgot

that we belonged to one

another.

Kyle Marvinney stood in line just before he and 126 other students processed into the Maranacook Community High School gym on Sunday. "It's nice to finally be done, to move on," he said.

Steve Cartwright -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

scartwright@centralmaine.com