Graduating from high school is one of the first big steps each year for so many students, as they step up to take the next strides in life. This will be my 16th year of covering graduation ceremonies in Clay County, and each year, it is so different. The process, in many ways, are the very same with each school, but the feel and mood of each of our three county schools ceremonies are totally different. I anticipate that this year will be just the same.
This weekend, Sandy Creek and Harvard are the first up to send yet another class off into the “big world,” both having ceremonies Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. Each year, for me, it always hits home as I drive away from commencement at each school. I often think about the students that just took that big step into the next chapter of their lives and I wonder what each is thinking, how each will do, and what each of our county graduates will be doing in life after going through 13 years of education, mostly together.
I realize, as it was the same for me, that we start in kindergarten with a group of classmates, and that over the next 13 years, the faces, names and personalities of a class change during each school year. Kids move away, kids move in, friends change during the course of those 13 years of elementary school, middle school, and high school.
But memories have been made over the last 13 years for these kids, their parents, and even grandparents, because the life of an elementary student, a middle school student, or high school student changes.
It’s been 41 years since I walked across the stage at Shelton High School in 1983. It almost seems like yesterday at times. It’s rare, after I moved away from the Shelton area, that I run into former classmates, but I always run into people who have left great impacts on me while I was in school at Shelton, people like Steve Glenn, who purchased the Shelton and Gibbon newspapers from my parents. Steve was a senior when I was a freshman at Shelton. I’ve run into the man at SHS that always left a big impact on me while in school, Mr. Larry Jensen.
I think back and realize, however, that I haven’t done a good job of keeping in touch with classmates and others who left an impact on me at Shelton, other than Steve, and once in a great while Mr. Jensen, and I, of course, run into a few other classmates, and schoolmates at times, With that said, I have no regrets about my life after my education at Shelton, but if there is one thing that I wish I had done better, and thatwould be keep up with some of my former classmates and schoolmates.
So graduates, over the course of the next two weeks, this Saturday at Sandy Creek and Harvard and next Saturday at Sutton, as you “walk the stage” to receive your diploma, keep in mind, especially if you move away from your home school district, to make sure you keep in touch, as best as you can. Not just through social media, but on the phone or if possible, in person.
As I approach 60 years of age this September, which just seems unreal to me, while I don’t have regrets, I do wish I had been better at keeping a stronger bond with some of my classmates, some of whom, I have no clue where they even are anymore.
Count your blessings, and keep in touch with those that you just spent the last 13 years in school with, and good luck to all of our Clay County graduates at Sandy Creek, at Harvard, and at Sutton.
Congratulations.
