ARLINGTON — “It’s surreal,” Seigo Hall said, as he stood on the field of the John C. Larson Stadium after he and his classmates had turned their tassels and tossed their caps in the air.

“I know that I’ll never feel anything like this again, so I’m glad I have my friends and family by my side for this experience.”

Arlington High School bid farewell to 334 graduates from the Class of 2015 on June 5, and they all seemed to be seeking to make some sense out of what Hall deemed a “mind-blowing” event.

Valedictorian Leah Youngquist admitted that she wasn’t close friends with all her classmates, nor did she even know all of them, but she asserted that they nonetheless shared a common bond that made them an eclectic family of sorts. Moreover, while each family has at least one person who has a reputation for making mistakes, Youngquist warned her fellow graduates that they could all look forward to failing as adults.

“But we will also pick ourselves up and start again,” Youngquist said. “I’m not trying to create an entire graduating class of timid, quiet people.”

Youngquist encouraged the class to embrace that life won’t always turn out as planned, but the risk of the unforeseen offers potential rewards as well.

“Join me in this next step of our lives, as we brace ourselves for the falls,” Youngquist said. “Just remember, we’ll have thicker skin when we get back up.”

Connor Ghirardo, who was both a valedictorian and a student representative on the school board, praised the families who helped the students. He also commended the students themselves, citing their athletic, academic and artistic accomplishments, from the seven sports teams that won WESCO League championships to the 39 seniors who placed in the top 10 percent of students statewide.

“And yes, Caroline, no one will forget the Robotics Club, who has gone above and beyond with their branding, accomplishments and outreach,” Ghirardo called out to classmate Caroline Vogl, who’s served on the NeoBots Team since her freshman year.

And while he freely acknowledged that he and his peers were looking forward to freedom from high school, Ghirardo asserted that they would still be responsible for continuing to learn throughout their lives. He passed on advice he’d received from Ron Guderian, a medical doctor in Ecuador.

“Going forward, our sole responsibility is to figure out what our innate abilities are — because we all have them — to develop them with everything we have, and then use them,” said Ghirardo, who then quoted Mahatma Gandhi. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow, but learn as if you were to live forever.”

Fellow valedictorian Gareth Henderson reminisced about bowing to peer pressure, most notably by shelving the loud Hawaiian shirts he favored in middle school, when he saw that no one else was wearing them in high school.

“I found myself in a situation where I felt like I needed to give up something that represented who I was in order to fit in, but over time, I became comfortable enough to start being myself again,” Henderson said. “Maybe our plans after today don’t follow the status quo of what others think we should be doing with our lives after high school, but as we go off into different directions in the world, don’t let the intimidation of being in a new place scare you away from being yourself. Don’t let anyone take away your Hawaiian shirts.”

The final valedictorian, Emily Beaton, offered the shortest address.

“Everybody expects the valedictorians to say something wise or insightful, but the truth is, I’m in the exact same place as all of you,” Beaton said. “I may have gotten slightly better grades than some of you, but there’s nothing that I’m thinking that you’re not thinking yourselves.”

As such, she simply quoted President Reagan: “If we make up our mind on what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose. Somehow, we win out.”

Caroline Vogl knows where she’s going — to Western Washington University. Although she was no stranger to programming and building robots in high school, she did so much advocacy for her club in the community that she feels she can contribute more as a lobbyist for science, technology, engineering and math subjects to elected officials.

“Education, women’s rights and the environment are my big causes,” Vogl said.