GUILDERLAND — The crowd filling the bleachers at the University of Albany arena on Saturday, June 27, cheered loudly. The players, however, were not wearing team uniforms. They were wearing caps and gowns — red for the young men, white for the young women. The game of life was unfolding in all its glory.

Four-hundred-and-twelve Guilderland graduates received their diplomas after an hour-long ceremony that ran the gamut from sentimental farewells to offbeat humor, all with an undertone of sincerity.

The district superintendent, Marie Wiles, led the processional into the arena followed by faculty and school board members and the highest honor graduates, all who assumed places on the stage.

The high school orchestra, directed by Susan Curro, played “Pomp and Circumstance” as the rest of the seniors walked to their seats on the floor of the arena. Some of the seniors waved to family and friends in the stands as cameras flashed and phones and tablets recorded the procession.

After Mina Moussadek led the Pledge of Allegiance, the seniors in the concert choir sang the national anthem.

“Today is a day to celebrate,” high school Principal Thomas Lutsic, who hosted the event, told the crowd as he introduced Wiles.

“Metaphorical gift”

“I am so proud of each and every one of you,” said Wiles.

She then posed for the graduates a question she had asked the faculty on the first day of school: “What matters most?”

Wiles held in her hand a pair of eyeglasses that had belonged to her mother and, before that, to her grandmother.

At the age of 85, her mother sold the family home, she said, and her belongings then, and again later, when she “downsized,” had to be sorted through: what to sell, what to give away, what to throw away, what to take with her.

“It’s hard work because it means making tough decisions about what matters most,” said Wiles.

She said she found things she hadn’t known had existed, like a collection of watercolors her mother had painted or a table her father had made as an eighth-grader.

“And I found these glasses,” said Wiles. “I personally thought about these glasses as I led our school district through ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies.”

Not long after the school year started, her mother died, and the objects took on significance, not as things but for what they represented, said Wiles.

Her parents, she said, had always put their five children first. They had taught their children to tell the truth even when it hurts. They had also been taught that hard work is its own reward, and that they should do their very best.

“Growing up,” Wiles told the graduates, “is about figuring out what matters most.” When you’re a child, people tell you what matters. “When you become older…you need to figure it out for yourself,” said Wiles.

She keeps her mother’s glasses on her piano at home where she sees them every day, Wiles said, and she is reminded to spend her efforts on what matters most.

These are exciting times, she told the graduates, filled with opportunities and the unknown. Wiles gave them “a metaphorical gift” — her mother’s glasses — so that, when faced with tough decisions, they will “help you see what matters most,” said Wiles.

“Childhood is over”

The student welcoming address was given by senior Ashley Cleary, a high honors graduate who will be attending the University of Michigan in the fall. Guilderland does not recognize a valedictorian and salutatorian but chooses its speakers from among students who submit speeches.

“We have lived it; we have survived it; we have finished it,” Cleary told her classmates of their career as Guilderland students.

“Childhood is over,” she said.

Cleary named some of the many activities in which members of the Class of 2015 had participated.

“You mark was made at GHS,” she said.

She also said, “It’s the power of the individual that gives me confidence.”

Cleary ended with some words of advice for her peers: “Be curious, be bold, and do what you love.”

“A collective story”

Leonard Bopp, a highest honors graduate who plans to study music and history at Williams College, said he remembered walking down the hallways of Guilderland High School as a freshman. “We arrive at this moment privileged with a quality education…blessed with support of family and friends,” he said.

Bopp also said, “I am inspired by the power of a dream…Our lives are novels waiting to be written.”

But, although the class is made up of individuals, Bopp said, “We are part of a collective story…We have shared a collective journey that has fundamentally shaped who we are.”

At the same time, “intersects along the way” reminded class members of each one’s individual stories, said Bopp. He went through a long list of the diverse talents of class members — writers and mathematicians, physicists and philosophers, workers and dreamers, builders and caretakers — and concluded, “Each one of us has been indispensable.”

Bopp went on, “If we are Guilderland, it must be true that I am Guilderland.”

He also said, “It is our responsibility to shape the world in which we live…to create something positive.” Those actions could be great or small, like marching in a protest or an act of kindness, he said.

“The path of progress may not always be clear,” Bopp warned. “Let us allow ourselves to live in a world of possibility.”

Bopp concluded, “As our story continues on, let us capture the spirit of today.”

“Leave things better than they were”

The orchestra then played “Dance of the Sailors from the Soviet Ship,” from Reinhold Gliere’s 1927 “The Red Poppy,” the first Soviet ballet with modern revolutionary theme.

“Thank you,” said Lutsic. “That was absolutely amazing.”

He then had the honors students, with averages between 85 and 85.9, stand; followed by the high honors students, with averages between 90 and 94.9; and then the highest honor students, with averages of 95 or higher. Finally, students who had volunteered for 200 hours or more of community service stood. Lutsic said they “make the world a better place.”

As each group was announced, applause swelled across the arena. There were hoots and hollers, too. One man in the crowd yelled, “We love you!”

“My high school experience was long ago,” Lutsic told the graduates. He noted that there has been much advancement in technology and fields like medicine.

“Our world had become smaller…I try to keep pace with the changes,” he said.

But, Lutsic went on, “Principles have not changed.”

He then said he would quote from two knowledgeable people — Abraham Lincoln and “my Grandma.”

“I am not bound to win, but I’m bound to be true. I'm not bound to succeed, but I’m bound to live up to what light I have,” said Lutsic, using a quote frequently attributed to Lincoln, recently by Barack Obama, although there is no documentary evidence they are Lincoln’s words.

Lutsic noted that there are many definitions of success. Being honest, he said, can fill us in ways material things cannot. The light that drives us is different for each of us, said Lutsic, but he concluded, “We all have the ability to learn and grow.”

When he was in high school, Lutsic said, “I was seeking the easy way.” In college, though, he said he learned the reward of stretching limits.

When the Class of 2015 was young, Lutsic recalled, he challenged the students, asking them how they would leave Guilderland High School.

“You have left your mark,” he told the graduates, challenging them now with their future.

He then launched into his grandmother’s advice for when he had borrowed something. “Tommy,” she would tell him, “you need to return it in better condition than you got it.”

Live to your potential, he told the graduates. “Leave things better than they were.”

“One of the greatest educators”

Trent Del Signore, an honors graduate who will attend the State University of New York College at Oneonta, introduced the keynote speaker, Bernard Bott, a Guilderland High School librarian. Del Signore said he’d spent the last couple of nights awake, wondering if he could “make Mr. Bott proud.”

“It was all the things he taught me that made me ready,” said Del Signore.

In his two years at Guilderland, Del Signore said, Bott had become “an essential part of the school community.” He also said that Bott “has transformed the library.”

Bott listens as well as he speaks, said Del Signore. “He didn’t give us the answers, but he taught us how to find them,” said Del Signore.

He concluded by calling Bott “one of the greatest educators the world has ever seen.”

Bott and Del Signore embraced before Bott stepped behind the lectern to start his speech.

“Empathy is essential”

“Your children are good, just in case you need some reassurances,” Bott told the crowd, as light laughter ripped across the bleachers. “This team of us and you shape humans we believe in,” he said of school staff and families.

Bott said he is raising two young kids and, to the parents in the crowd, he confided, “We’re kind of just making it up as we go along.”

Scanning the crowd, he thanked “everyone who has touched these young students.”

Then he addressed the rows of graduates seated before him as “humans of the Class of 2015.” He told them, “Your kindness is only surpassed by your candor.”

With self-deprecating humor, Bott described the reaction from students when he’d show up at school wearing “conflicting patterns.”

“Your generation will be inspiring my children,” he told the class. “I trust you more than any other class I’ve known in my decade-long career.”

Bott said of the high school years, “This will be the easiest part of life.”

What’s coming next, he told them, “should scare you, give you a sense of urgency to learn from others.”

He then dispensed “Bott’s rules for living as an above-average human.”

First, he said, “Surround yourself with positive people…rid yourself of negativity.” While drama has its place, said Bott, the people who make you smile and laugh are the ones to stick with.

Second, he said, “Be curious.” If you don’t explore new things, Bott said, “you have just forfeited an incredible opportunity to grow as a person.”

He also said, “I hope I made you wonder….It isn’t the unknown that should scare you, but being afraid to seek it.”

Third, said Bott, “Laugh at yourself, please.”

He told the graduates to “get used to failure and smiling through it.”

Bott also acknowledged, “Some here today have experienced real struggles.”

He said that there is no college called On My Own and no occupation called By Myself. “We need each other,” said Bott; we are more alike than different. “Accept help when it’s offered.”

Finally, he advised, “Do something terrifying.”

To gales of laughter, he added, “Do something legal — yet terrifying.”

He went on, “Take a chance on something or someone. Nothing worth having is without risk. Get out of your comfort zone.”

Bott concluded of his advice, “The common denominator of all these things is people.”

He noted that he would greet students who came to the library with these words, “Hello, humans.”

Bott explained, “We are all joined by this fact” — that we are people. You are not your gender, he told the students; you are only the reflection of your kindness.

Speaking as if to each one of the graduates, Bott went on, “I value you as a person.”

He went on, “Keep the human imperative in mind…Empathy is essential.”

Bott concluded to warm applause, “In our deepest, darkest moments, know there is one person who believes you will succeed.”

With those closing words, the beach balls were unleashed. A Guilderland tradition, the colorful balls in some past graduation ceremonies have disrupted the speakers, but this year the students waited until the speeches were over. The colorful balls were batted, hither and yon, across the rows of seated students.

Then, one by one, the graduates ascended the stage as their class advisors — Tara McConaghy, Angela Corey, and Alicia McTiernan — called out their names.

Wiles and Barbara Fraterrigo, the school board president, dispensed the diplomas along with handshakes.

With a turn of the tassel and the tossing of mortarboards, the ceremony ended as students rushed to the embrace of their families