Those who addressed the 133 seniors graduating last night from Prospect Mountain High School sounded familiar refrains: get out and do good in the world, chart your own course, take ownership of your life.

Some of the seniors may have needed the nudging, but not Heather Tempest. Nor does she need the guidance.

The 18-year-old from Barnstead became a licensed nursing assistant through a vocational program while completing her regular coursework and graduating with honors from Prospect Mountain.

Her path has strayed from those taken by most of her peers. Instead of a classroom, she spent many of her school days on clinical rounds, helping care for seniors in a Wolfeboro nursing home. Instead of after-school activities, she's worked at Dunkin' Donuts for nearly four years.

Instead of playing sports, she drag races.

"I'm an asthmatic. I'm a small person. I get hurt a lot," Tempest said, explaining why she didn't pursue more typical athletic endeavors. (She's 4-foot-10.)

For Tempest, who plans to enroll at NHTI this fall and start working - and paying her own way - toward a nursing degree, graduation "didn't come soon enough. Let's put it that way."

Last night, her classmates certainly seemed excited to be leaving Prospect Mountain, too, though the seniors who spoke waxed a little more nostalgic about what they'd be leaving behind.

Valedictorian Megan Farrell described daily life at Prospect Mountain, lacing her speech with references to popular teachers and class jokes and drawing upon common experiences, like "the echo of teachers' voices" telling students to take off their hats and throw out their energy drinks.

"Those familiarities will dissolve," Farrell said, "and others will take their place. But don't let these familiarities become your life. . . . Remember to risk a little every day."

Kaitlyn LaCourse, the salutatorian, credited her classmates - "the kindest, most inspiring, and strangest people" - with helping her grow as a person.

Alexandria Phillips, the bubbly senior class president, also paid tribute to her peers and the "hilarious, heartwarming, amazing and downright bizarre" moments they shared.

"We really deserve our own reality TV show," she said.

A few rain clouds lingered yesterday evening, and the ceremony was held inside. Parents filled the rows of the high school's auditorium, armed and ready with cameras, craning as the graduates - boys in black robes, and girls in white - filed in under an archway of balloons.

Principal James Fitzpatrick began the ceremony by reminding the graduates of the serious and "historic significance of events like tonight," though he injected some humor, too, thanking the seniors who stuffed his car full of packing peanuts on Thursday.

In one of the evening's more unexpected moments, teacher Joseph Palmer Derrick advised students to remember the importance of love in their lives. Backed by a student saxophonist, he then segued into a spoken-word segment that ended with neon lights, a jumping Derrick and a stage full of seniors dancing to the beat of Bob Marley's "Could You Be Loved."

The lights went back on, and all was again normal in the auditorium. Shortly after, seniors rose in unison, row by row, to receive their diplomas.