Everyone has heard about the kids who fell behind during the pandemic, the ones who struggled in hybrid classes or to connect with others coming out of lockdown. Tabitha Nedeau was one of them.

Nedeau and the rest of the class of 2025 came into Concord High School as restrictions began to relax, yet it didn’t mean their worlds, or their selves, were back to normal. She fell behind.

But before Nedeau was a junior worried about whether she’d be able to graduate on time, she was a kindergartner in her grandmother Jerilynn’s class. A determined teacher’s assistant, Nedeau knew even then that she wanted to follow in the footsteps of “Ms. Jeri” and the other teachers in her family.

That goal is part of what got her through night classes and make-up credits and on Saturday, wearing a cap she’d decorated to assert that, a la Wicked, she is unlimited, Nedeau took a major step towards achieving it. This fall, she’s headed to the early childhood education program at Southern New Hampshire University.

“I didn’t think I’d get here. I didn’t think that I would graduate high school,” she said. “So graduating with my class, not a year behind, it feels great.”

The graduating seniors of the Crimson Tide celebrated with flair Saturday, taking selfies or sticking their tongues out as they crossed the stage, while also reminding each other to use what they’d learned to pay it forward.

“The question is, how will you take what you know and make something of it?” Salutatorian Phoebe Dater-Roberts said to the sea of crimson before her. “After learning from others for so long, how will you teach someone else?”

Claire Brown followed with a lesson for her peers.

After two years at private boarding school left her lost, lonely and profoundly unhappy, she came home to Concord High.

“You can chase every expectation, check every box, and follow the path that looks perfect on the outside,” Brown said. “But if it doesn’t feel right, if it doesn’t bring you peace, then it’s ok to change the course.”

Taking her mental health seriously, she had learned, would always be worth it.

When Principal Tim Herbert told the graduates that they were entering the world not with all the answers, but knowing how to ask for help, how to support others and how to push past setbacks, he just as easily could have been referring to Nedeau as to Brown or to Valedictorian Madeline Muller.

Muller implored her classmates to stay present and in touch with their joy. It was something she also had learned the hard way.

“I wasn’t pushing myself because I wanted to become a better student, but because of the label I could receive,” Muller said. And, in the end, “It’s just a title.”

After crossing the stage, shaking hands with school leaders and receiving the leather case with their name on it, each graduate turned the corner and headed for their seats. Most couldn’t wait until they got there to open the case — was their diploma actually in there, in their hands? Was this really it? Was their name spelled right?

While many in the class were wistful, even sad, Samy Marcelin wasn’t one of them.

With caps tossed, the graduates leapt to their feet as their families roared with pride from the bleachers at Memorial Field.

Sereva Cela and Marcelin, who bonded as members of the school’s Be the Change club, flung into each others arms.

“I’m just so happy to be done,” Marcelin said.

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.