They marched in under familiar banners – as Panthers, Titans, Broncos, Sabers, Tomahawks, Spartans, Cavaliers, Warriors and Cardinals, among others.

Some marched under no banners at all because they attended one of the region’s alternative high schools, which may not have sports teams and mascots but offer something just as valuable: a second chance for those who struggled in the mainstream educational world.

Regardless of the roads they traveled along the way, hundreds of students from the class of 2016 walked out as graduates in recent weeks.

One of the best parts about graduation is the chance to hear from students themselves. To that end, some of our favorites from the cap-and-gown season just concluded.

"Oftentimes it is easy to get caught up in the bad times," Nashua High School North’s class valedictorian Srilekha Vangavolu reminded her classmates. "But the ups and downs are what make the ride interesting, and without the downs, you can’t go up."

Kabir Kalsi, senior class president at Alvirne High School in Hudson, talked about all the various ways that the students are reduced to little more than numbers – IQ scores, SAT scores and grade-point averages – and encouraged his peers to break away from that method of accounting.

"Numbers don’t define us. We are not machines – we are humans," he said. "It’s the things we are passionate about, the things we work hard to achieve, and the moments of happiness, joy, and relief that describe who we are."

Abigail Schulte, the class salutatorian at Souhegan High School in Amherst, used her speech to lament the lack of a "decent" number of snow days during her senior year, then lent a little perspective to the proceedings: "Consider your own privilege," Schulte said. "We have been given gifts people in other parts of the world can scarcely imagine."

Merrimack High School valedictorian Matthew Spettel challenged his classmates to find their own definition of success: "As we leave this field today, we must ask ourselves, ‘Are we choosing society’s ideal of success, or our own?’?" Spettel said, "We must show the world that impact, not money, is one of the key components of success and happiness."

Evan Mun, the valedictorian at Campbell High School in Litchfield, pondered the fact that "we are tiny, insignificant and useless in some grand scheme which we can’t even begin to comprehend." But also noted, "We have created a home on this tiny shard of a pebble, and we can’t give up now," he said.

And then there was Homaira Medina, one of 28 students to receive a diploma from the Nashua Adult & Community School, a program offering an alternative path for adults, out-of-school youths and other learners seeking a high school-equivalent degree. "Life is a journey with many different paths," she said. "But as long as we continue to bring joy to everyone’s life, help others and learn something new every day, we will continue happily in this journey."

And Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative valedictorian Allyson Schwab noted that while the unknown awaited, there was a decided upside to that, too. "We are leaving our comfort zones. We can go where we want and be what we want, and we never have to eat school lunch again."

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