Twenty students from the tri-town graduated from Tabor Academy on Monday. At the ceremony, students were encouraged by their peers and the faculty to remember the family that they found at Tabor, and to take what they learned into the world moving forward.

The ceremony, originally planned for under a tent by the waterfront, took place in the school's fieldhouse instead due to inclement weather, at 2 p.m.

Graduate Lauren Ehrreich sang the national anthem to open the ceremony, and head of school John Quirk welcomed the graduates, faculty, friends and family to the graduation.

Ollie Sughrue of Marion and Mary Kate McIntire of Mattapoisett, co-heads of school, spoke on behalf of the student body.

McIntire expressed the bittersweet sentiments of leaving high school, but urged her classmates to appreciate everything they gained from their time at Tabor.

"As Jackson Pollock said, 'Beginnings are usually scary, endings are usually sad, but it's what's in the middle that counts,'" she said.

Graduate Clayton Keller introduced commencement speaker Richard Roller, who shared his five most important lessons for the students to take with them: Take care of your mother, enjoy the foliage, maintain balance, apply the rule of reasonable and prudent, and keep your head up and your eyes on the horizon.

Roller also acknowledged that leaving high school can be tough, but that he hopes the students are excited for what comes next.

"Leaving is difficult," he said. "It's supposed to be...Why should it not be hard to leave such a place? At the same time, if we have done our job well, you should be outgrowing us and anticipating what's next."

Following the commencement address, 26 students were inducted into the Cum Laude Society, including Sughrue, Phoebe Bride from Marion, Brett Dineen from Marion and Kyle Rood from Rochester.