Tyler Durand squinted at the shifting image on his aunt, Michelle Linguli’s, phone until it spoke.

“You’ve worked so hard,” Kate Flannery, the actress known for portraying Meredith Palmer on NBC’s The Office, chirped from inside the small screen.

Durand, a die-hard fan, wore a reference to Flannery’s show on his bedazzled graduation cap as he watched her message congratulating him for an achievement shared by no one else in his graduating class: that of valedictorian.

Delivering a speech before a sea of his peers, Durand recalled the other caps he’d worn during his academic life: one blue, the other green and emblazoned with a Celtics logo. Both were shields for him, an anxious teenager, to hide behind. He was a “quiet, go-with-the-flow type of kid” who feared questioning harsh grades he felt he didn’t deserve.

The young man standing at the podium, draped in sashes, braided cords and medals, couldn’t be more different from the person he described.

“We will encounter countless opportunities to grow, explore and change. My advice is to take every one,” he said, recalling a trip to France that altered his perception of himself and emboldened him to live differently. Linguli, his proud aunt, jolted forward in her lawn chair and clanged a cowbell in support. “Every opportunity you decline, every opportunity you miss is a transformational moment you’re neglecting.”

Durand, who’s chosen to study biochemistry at the University of New Hampshire in the fall, was one of 84 students who filed onto the baseball field at Belmont High School. They arrived as students and left, misty-eyed and euphoric, as the school’s newest alumni.

Each one now charts a new path. Following in his mother’s footsteps, Durand hopes to become a pharmacist. Madison Smith, the class salutatorian, plans to pursue psychology at St. Lawrence University. Four students from the class of 2025 will join the military.

Madelyn Besegai and Adeline Takantjas have both chosen to enroll in nursing programs at Emmanuel College and Wheaton College, respectively. The two friends already plan to drive the 40-minute distance between their new schools for regular visits.

At graduation, Besegai and Takantjas reminisced over silly skits they filmed together with whatever downtime they had in elementary school. They remembered drifting apart for some time before reuniting in high school over dissections in their Anatomy and Physiology class and during a formative two-week French exchange trip.

“We both had different experiences, but when we were apart and we would finally meet up again, we would both be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen you in so long!’ And we would just debrief about everything we’ve done,” Besegai recalled.

Guarding her front-row seat, Takantjas prepared two dozen flowers to distribute to loved ones during the evening’s Flower Ceremony. She saved a special recognition for her mom, Edith Takantjas, who has taught French at Belmont High since 2008 and served as the senior class advisor.

Edith confessed as she organized seats near the stage, “There’s been a lot of crying.”

Ahead of the ceremony, Durand’s family, too, felt the emotion spreading across the field.

His grandfather, Bob Cormier, boasted of Durand not only as the first in his graduating class but as the first of his grandchildren to graduate high school at all. His youngest grandchildren darted in circles around his legs while their cousin tried to articulate the intensity of his emotions.

Standing at Durand’s side in her crisp white robe, Smith, the salutatorian, made a list. “I’m feeling scared but happy, excited, anxious and nervous.”

He nodded in agreement. “I’m feeling every emotion.”

Rebeca Pereira can be reached at rpereira@cmonitor.com.