WINTHROP — It was easy to pick Rosie Wilson out of the Winthrop High School graduation crowd on Sunday afternoon: Her blond mohawk was partially dyed green, the Ramblers’ main color.
She was here from Tucson, Arizona, to support her niece, Trisha Wilson, who turned her tassel at the ceremony’s end and plans to attend East Tennessee State University hoping to become a veterinarian. Just don’t ask the aunt if the newly minted graduate would be embarrassed by the hairdo.
“Embarassed about what?” Rosie Wilson said. “She’s graduating from high school, and the coolest aunt in the world is here.”
Nobody cheered louder when Trisha got her diploma. She was one of 48 graduates of the Winthrop school’s class of 2015, with students leaving for college, military service and jobs. At the ceremony in the school’s gym, Keith Morin called himself “the proudest principal of any high school in the state of Maine” and urged students to “be remembered as virtuous individuals that others want to emulate.”
“You will discover that fame, fortune and happiness are not formed by a career, but if you like what you do, you will be the happiest, most famous and rich person there ever was,” he said.
In his speech, valedictorian Kevin Chamberland quoted “a wise man” — the egotistical rapper Kanye West — who once told a magazine that “I feel like I’m too busy writing history to read it.”
“This should serve as an example to us because we all can make an impact,” Chamberland said. “There is still so much of our life ahead of us, and we have time to achieve what we want.”
Salutatorian Lilly Beauregard said that people have nicknamed her “Flower” since middle school, so she thought it best to express herself in those terms.
“A perennial-like life is something we all aspire to have, meaning continued success for many years,” she said, “without losing passion, ambition and recollection of the past: The memories we created at Winthrop.”
Michael Shepherd — 370-7652
Twitter: @mikeshepherdme
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