The time has finally come for the Class of 2009 to put down the books and pick up the mortarboards (those weird little flat hats that are part of graduating regalia.)<\/p>\n
All of you, I\u2019m certain, could see this coming. But for most of you, it won\u2019t seem real until you wake up the following Monday and realize you\u2019re not driving to school today.<\/p>\n
Gone, too, will be the daily homework grind, the cafeteria lunches, the dances, the football games, the tears and the laughter: all the facets of this little academic community that was your home these past four years.<\/p>\n
Today, there will be more laughter and more tears, because you\u2019re about to close the door on one of the most important places you\u2019ve ever been in your whole life.<\/p>\n
High school is a lot more than tests, report cards and study hall. It\u2019s a lot more than the tangibles \u2013 computers, textbooks, grading systems \u2013 that we adults tend to yack about.<\/p>\n
High school is a place and time that each one of you holds in your heart \u2013 and because it is a vastly different experience for each of you, nobody has a lock on what, exactly, the \u201chigh school experience\u201d is supposed to be about.<\/p>\n
High school is the place where you learned to be adults, one way or another. Sometimes it was an easy lesson to learn; at other times, it was the hardest thing you ever had to do.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it was all you could do to survive and get up to see another day. But you did.<\/p>\n
Friendships and loves, teachers and classmates, enemies and friends \u2013 all of these were the people you had in your life \u2013 whether you brought them there, or whether they were put there, thanks to an alphabetical seating chart or an aptitude test. Making it all work somehow was the real test \u2013 more important than all the academic tests you had to take these past four years.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re about to step into the next chapter of your lives, Class of 2009. And while it might be a scary place and full of unknowns at times, please don\u2019t forget where you have been. You were put into a high school, and you made that place your home. That in itself is an achievement \u2013 you made a life for yourself, with nothing but an open notebook, and an equally open mind.<\/p>\n
And you\u2019ve got a new family \u2013 several hundred of them, to be exact. Family members who don\u2019t stint on hugs and words of encouragement, should you call them. Because you are still all in this together. Even if you are no longer in the same building.<\/p>\n
Best wishes to you, Class of 2009.<\/p>\n
You made it, and we\u2019re all so proud of you.<\/p>\n
Some words of wisdom from Dr. Seuss:<\/p>\n
Congratulations!<\/p>\n
Today is your day.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re off to Great Places!<\/p>\n
You\u2019re off and away!<\/p>\n
You have brains in your head.<\/p>\n
You have feet in your shoes<\/p>\n
You can steer yourself<\/p>\n
any direction you choose.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re on your own.<\/p>\n
And you know what you know.<\/p>\n
And YOU are the guy who\u2019ll decide where to go.<\/p>\n
(–from \u201cOh, the Places You\u2019ll Go\u201d)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The time has finally come for the Class of 2009 to put down the books and pick up the mortarboards (those weird little flat hats that are part of graduating regalia.) All of you, I\u2019m certain, could see this coming. But for most of you, it won\u2019t seem real until you wake up the following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19225"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}