POCATELLO — After 90 minutes of wearing his cap and gown inside Holt Arena on Tuesday afternoon, his diploma now in hand, new Highland High School graduate Jesse Vincent admitted he was feeling many emotions.

    “It feels great,” Vincent said about graduating before admitting he was also a bit nervous. “Emotions are running a little high. I am excited to get on with my life.”

    Maybe that’s the part that was giving Vincent some mixed emotions. One chapter is closing, but the start of a new chapter isn’t that far off.

    Many will have the summer to play and prepare before heading off to college. Others will head into the workforce, opting for a job to start their adulthood rather than school.

    Vincent, however, is among those who will take advantage of changes in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ policy regarding the age restrictions for serving a mission. The church lowered that minimum age last fall to 18 years old for men and to 19 years old for women.

    Vincent reports to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on July 31 to prepare for his two-year mission, which will be spent in Singapore. Part of that training will be to learn Malay, one of the primary languages spoken in Singapore, and several other countries.

    If there is anything in the process of preparing for his mission that doesn’t make Vincent nervous, it would no doubt be his ability to learn that language.

    “During my high school career, I have been learning different languages,” he said. “Before that, I didn’t know anything beside English.”

    Vincent, who graduated with academic highest honors — meaning he finished with a 4.0 grade point average and completed other District 25 requirement — speaks seven different languages to varying degrees. He spent all four years at Highland studying Spanish and two years studying French. He has also studied, on his own, Japanese, Italian, German, Czech, and Maori, a primary language in New Zealand, where he has friends.

    “I have a really easy time picking them up,” Vincent said. “I am definitely best with English and Spanish. Then from French on I am not as fluent in them, but I definitely could have a conversation with someone.”

    Vincent was one of more than 300 students to graduate from Highland on Tuesday, during a ceremony hosted at Holt Arena that got under way at noon.

    Among the student speakers during Tuesday’s ceremony were Vinton Gwinn, Highland’s student body president, Ali Johnson, the senior class president, and Mackenzie Miner, a student chosen among those who also graduated with academic highest honors.

    Each doled out a small bit of advice and a lot of encouragement.

    “We only have one life to live, leaving us no excuse for why we cannot become exactly who and what we want to be,” Johnson told her classmates. “Class of 2013, do not wait around, do not make excuses for why you cannot fill your dreams.”

    Gwinn began his speech with remarks that brought on rampant cheers from his fellow graduates.

    “All right Highland High class of 2013, I want to be the first to say, We did it!,” he said.

    Gwinn, who also graduated with academic highest honors, will be attending Boise State University on scholarship and studying accounting. He also talked a bit about the hard work that brought each graduate to this point, telling them that all of it was behind them, and with it their ability to excuse away mistakes as incidents of youth.

    “Your life is finally in your own hands, you control the outcome,” he said. “From this day forward what we do matters. Our mistakes won’t be erased, they won’t be wiped away and our parents can’t come bail us out, or even keep us out of trouble. We are our own responsibility now.”

    Some of those comments were made in the context of some friendly advice on the importance of creating a good reputation from this day forward and the difficulty of living down a poor reputation.

    After the ceremony, as students turned in their gowns and grabbed their diplomas and other awards and certificates, Vincent pondered his future beyond his LDS mission, saying that he hoped to study at Brigham Young University.

    His ultimate desire is to find a vocation that will use his knack for picking up languages, mentioning several options, including diplomatic work, government service and even helping to dub or subtitle movies.

    In college, however, he will plan for a career that will give him additional options.

    “I am going to minor or major in accounting,” Vincent said. “So I can use that as a backup if nothing else works out.”