LEBANON — In what has been a notoriously rainy spring, not a cloud hung in the sky over Lebanon High School’s commencement ceremony on Thursday evening as the 137 graduates processed onto a school athletic field.

The evening’s speakers reflected on the passage of time and the power of graduates’ passions as the sun set in front of them.

“I urge you all to do two contradictory things: First, lose track of time and live in the moment, but also don’t forget to appreciate each and every one of the small moments that passes,” co-Valedictorian Olly Russell said to her classmates.

Russell will attend Johns Hopkins University.

If one thing is clear, it’s that the Lebanon High School Class of 2025 loved a good joke.

That certainly included the evening’s emcee: “I am Kyle Hines, THE Kyle Hines, and you all are lucky enough to have me as your master of ceremonies tonight.”

Hines, who is headed to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, was selected for the role by his classmates, and his balance of humor, charisma and enthusiasm for his peers quickly revealed why.

Hines thanked his “1984 Ford F-150” for getting him to the event and praised the school’s “unwritten dress code, as you can see by my Crocs and socks here.”

Hines highlighted the many accomplishments of the Class of 2025, including academic and athletic accolades, musical talents and being the first class to participate in a program that has students building an airplane.

Hines was part of the crew that tackled the plane project along with Tomas Kennelly, one of the class’s two valedictorians.

As he balanced a 3-D printed orange monster on the top of his graduation cap, Kennelly, who will attend Dartmouth College, urged his classmates to ask difficult questions and never stop learning.

“Pay attention to the little details of the world around you, because it is the only place you can be,” Kennelly told his classmates.

Students chose English and social studies teacher Sara Bennett as their commencement speaker.

In his introduction, Dominic Calandrella, who is headed to the University of New Hampshire, described Bennett as “a bright and grounding presence.”

“Typically at the end of May I’m counting down the seconds until summer, but last week I found myself sobbing on my way to work because I’m afraid I won’t have another group of students like this,” Bennett said.

Bennett warned the students that their paths may not be direct and things will not always go as planned, but that is not a bad thing.

She reminded the students of the day when there was a mouse in her classroom and she found herself “perched on my desk hearing someone shout, ‘Get it out! get it out!’ That person was me.”

Despite hearing her pleas, Bennett said neither the students in the classroom nor her fellow teachers came to her aid.

“Here’s the thing about being stuck,” Bennett advised. “Sometimes, we have a tendency to overreact to our fears. They’re not as big as we make them out to be and no one else is responsible for helping us get down.”

In the only accolade delivered during the ceremony, graduate Tori Palys earned the Spirit of LHS Award for exemplifying the values of the Lebanon High community. Palys will attend River Valley Community College next year.

Retiring English teacher Tim Winslow praised Palys for her hard work, curiosity, collaborative spirit, and the ability to respect and communicate well with others.

Just before the students exited to Jack Johnson’s “Upside Down,” graduate Reeve Green urged his classmates to find their passions, and to not forget the “big-little passions” they already have.

Green, who will attend Northwestern University, said while his big passion is for theater, his “big-little” passions include the TV show “Severance,” a “good Boloco burrito” and “my love for the Renberget, an Ikea desk chair I bought during COVID.”

Reeves also called out some of classmates’ “big-little passions,” such as Hines’ aforementioned 1984 Ford F-150, which garnered three mentions over the course of the ceremony.

“Do more, go deep, many of you have so much passion and others of you have passion waiting out there,” Reeves said. “Go seize it. Proudly love those random things that make you inexplicably happy.”

Clare Shanahan can be reached at cshanahan@vnews.com.

Lebanon High SchoolClass of 2025

Keziah Aguja, Keene State College; Alexander Aldrich, Bryant University; Whitney Aldrich, University of New Haven; Nick Christopher Avelino, New Hampshire Technical College; Rebecca Ball, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Hannah Barton, Champlain College; Katelyn Billingham; Titus Billings, University of New Hampshire; Nicholas Otto Bourne, Colgate; Riley Breedlove, Eckerd College; Benjamin Britton, University of Pittsburgh; Tanner Brown, workforce; Nickolay Burnin, Dartmouth College; Norah Burns, University of Kentucky; Aero Buzby-Leggett; Dominic Calandrella, University of New Hampshire; Morgan Cass, workforce; Nicholas Caver, workforce; David Champagne, Military; Benjamin Chan, Clarkson University; Michael Chavaree, Norwich University; Meghanne Cheevers, Salve Regina University; Mary Chesnut, Colby Sawyer; Jun Chewning, Clark University; Ellie Clark, Mount Holyoke College; Charles Clarke; Timothy Corwin, College of the Holy Cross; Braelyn Covell; Seth Danen-Lucier, Carnegie Mellon University; Keegan Dannehy, University of Utah; Summer Davis, Plymouth State University; Ainslee Delisle, workforce; Tanner Dickerson, Keene State College; Christopher Dinmore, workforce; Nathan Dube Jr., Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Nina Ellingson, Connecticut College; Luke Engert, workforce; Lucy Eshbaugh, Texas A&M; Kaylee Felch, University of New Haven; Reed Ferland, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Melany Ferreira, workforce; Sloan Gailey, Brigham Young University-Idaho; Abigail Gallagher, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Max Garland; Marco Getchell, Yale University; Hannah Giguere, Paul Smith’s College; Lucas Graham, Union College; Margaret Grant, Paul Mitchell Cosmetology & Beauty School; Reeve Green, Northwestern University; Jaxon Gunn, workforce; Shaashwat Halwawala, Northeastern University; Reese Hamilton, River Valley Community College; Niles Harris, Gallagher Tree Service; Arlo Hastings, Syracuse University; Kyle Hines, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Laura Hines, University of New England; Alexander Hodges; Gianni Hossler; Drew Kantor, North Carolina State University; Tyler Kelly, workforce; Tomas Kennelly, Dartmouth College; Christopher Kinne, Advanced Welding Institute; Doyen Kodiweera, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Iris LaBonte, Southern New Hampshire University; Nathan LaHaye, workforce; Joshua Langlois, Trade School; Savannah Lindsley, San Diego State University; Maximilian Loveland, Sarah Lawrence; Jenney Lutz, University of Maine-Farmington; Jasper Marcy, River Valley Community College; Kalaiya Marshall, Roxbury Community College; Hannah Martin, University of New Haven; Maria Martinez-Furmann; William McGonigle; Amalia Mladek, Cornell University; Sophia Mladek, Cornell University; Maria Munteanu, Lancaster University; Sage Murray, Elon University; Riley Naylor, Temple University; Madison Neily, University of New Hampshire; Myles Nolan, Bryant University; Omar Osman, University of New Hampshire; Victoria Palys, River Valley Community College; Madalyn Parker, Colby Sawyer College; Olivia Parsons, Saint Anselm’s College; Gavin Patch, workforce; Stacy Peace; Domenico Pentella, Keene State College; Nicholas Petrucci, Embry-Riddle Aerospace University; Bode Price, Louisiana State University; Orr Rabkin, military; Augustin Ramos-Glew, Babson College; Mackenzie Ray, Eastern Connecticut State University; Garrett Rose, Military; Molly Russell, Johns Hopkins University; Hailey Schibuola, Florida Atlantic University; Dorothy Sears, University of Rochester; Kaisa Sentman, University of New Hampshire; Charles Silver, Embry-Riddle Aerospace University; Andrew Singleton, Culinary Institute of America; Aidan Snow, Roanoke College; Ella Sousa, Wheaton College; Violet Stanley, University of New Hampshire; Palmer Susco, George Washington University; Charlotte Sylvestre, Bridgewater State University; George Tafe, University of California Santa Cruz; Ian Thibodeau, Clark University; Lydia Thomas, University of Vermont; Caleb Thornton, Keene State College; Brett Thorpe, Other; Sophia Tremblay, workforce; Kwanchi Vorachak; Taylor Wallace, gap year; Isabella Wilson; Anya Wolcott, Emmanuel College; Nicholas Wolstenholme, workforce; Rya Wykes, University of California, San Diego; Alysa Wyman, University of New Haven; Paul Yates, Johnson & Wales; Anya Zabski, Ithaca College; Gracie Zemlicka-Bagley, gap year; and Houze Zhou, University of Rochester.