Ships have sailed; Grads ready to `explore the ocean'.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Nathaniel Weixel

WESTBORO - The Westboro High School class of 2007 graduated under threatening skies yesterday, but the rain held off long enough for valedictorian Jenny Shen to tell her classmates that their graduation doesn't need to have significant meaning in their lives.

"Tomorrow won't be that different," Ms. Shen said. "When you wake up, what will have changed?"

Ms. Shen told the 265 graduates gathered on the school's football field that they have been forced by college applications to look back on their lives from birth to the present, and to find meaning in events such as losing your first tooth. She said that sometimes it's the second tooth that has significance, not the first.

"Graduation doesn't automatically make us adults," Ms. Shen said. "We're all still young. We're desperately looking for meaning in our lives, when most of us are too young to know what meaning is."

Ms. Shen said graduating from high school is a marker between memory and reality because it provides an opportunity to reminisce about the past while moving forward.

"Graduation is about appreciating the memories you've had, and letting go," Ms. Shen said. "Any meaning we're getting comes from the memories and experiences it took to get us here."

In his welcoming address, class president Edward Chen told classmates they should not be afraid of hardships in life.

"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are for," Mr. Chen said, quoting historian John A. Shedd. He told class members the same is true about Westboro. He said the harbor will always be safe, but he urged the class to "go explore the ocean. Sail past the hardships into the light."

Salutatorian Bhuvic Patel told the class to think about their friendships and to cherish them.

"Friends will forgive your mistakes," Mr. Patel said. "The only thing that can outlast friendship is college debt."

Principal John Pierce, who is retiring at the end of the year, encouraged the graduates to remember the values of being educated in a public school. Mr. Pierce said public schools are the last chance anyone has of being provided an equal opportunity to succeed.

The world may not treat everyone as equals, Mr. Pierce said, but "when those yellow buses pull up, the principles of democracy should prevail."

Mr. Pierce said the faculty is "the soul of the school," and members will always remember the graduates.

"Long after you've forgotten us, wherever you are in this world, we will be watching for...