Graduation Day

May is here and summer vacation is not far behind. High School Seniors will be graduating at the end of the month. It is an exciting time. Getting your cap and gown. Sending announcements. Senior activities, awards ceremonies, "Senior Check Out", and graduation practice. Signing yearbooks. Exchanging pictures. Finally knowing where you are going to be the next year.

My career as a Senior English teacher enabled me to share in the experience year after year. I sometimes felt like a sociologist, watching the evolution of a species. Early in the fall, the "Senior" title was intoxicating. The new status and power was long anticipated and now relished. Senior Parking lot, the "good lunch", leaving campus for concurrent enrollment or DECA and ruling the Pep Assemblies. Most Seniors were now confidently within their "groups". Those groups were the circles of friends that had been developing and repositioning in the lower grades. There was less "angst" Senior Year.

After Christmas, the atmosphere changed. College applications were due. FAFSA forms indicated eligibility for aid. GPA's became very concrete reminders of effort and opportunities. ACT scores were in for the last time. Those prepared and ready were looking forward. Those that never got it, began looking back. Effort and drive in the final semester? Those that did, were and those that didn't, really weren't. This time of year, it was a difficult job to keep either group engaged in Macbeth or Expository writing or the evaluation of logical arguments.

Spring. Senior Week finally arrived. There was the ginger- haired kid who was absolutely elated because he "passed" high school. There was the Valedictorian, headed East in the fall, who brought a small gift with a personal note that made me cry. A tattooed and pierced tough guy spontaneously picked me up and twirled me around his last day of class. A very young and unmarried Mother asked me to sign her yearbook and to pose for a picture with her, baby and all. A newly enlisted and shorn eighteen year old boy shared dreams of opportunities offered by the military. He would head off to Basic, six days after graduation.

You try as a teacher to instill a love of learning. "It's important" - you repeat again and again. You try as a teacher to expand horizons and widen the often limited vision of teens. How to get them to step out of the now and how to look toward the future. How to give them the tools to set life goals and then, zero in on how to attain them. To realize all things are possible but no things are given. You try as teacher to lead each student to a bright and promising future. The next step? You stand back and cross your fingers.

This time of year I always get nostalgic. I miss the excitement and anticipation I vicariously absorbed through my graduating students. I miss the hub-bub and energy of the last week. I miss the shared plans and destinations. I miss their youthful confidence in the future. I miss their smiles as they bounce, or run, or bop, or glide across the stage. Each gown clad graduate receives their diploma, shakes an outstretched hand and heads down the stairs- to their future-and to the rest of their life.

****Best Wishes Class of 2008****
**May All Your Dreams Come True**