It is hard to believe our eighteen-year-old students graduated this past Friday, May 31st. It is funny how time slips away. I believe Monte Dutton can verify or refute that he and I graduated on May 31st, a time long, long ago (Class of 1976…too long for me to do the math).
The world is changing so very quickly these days, but a quick look back to 2005 (the year many seniors were born) shows that YouTube had just been invented, “Guitar Hero” hit the shelves for the first time, and Tom Cruise had a jumping fit on Oprah Winfrey’s couch.
In the last decade alone, we have discovered, created, or implemented (1) Artificial intelligence applications, (2) Venmo/Paypal, (3) the ubiquitous iPad, (4) the self-driving car, and (5) the Ring Doorbell system.
Our students have so much to learn in a world that has changed so much. This year’s class is one of those memorable, fun-loving, difference-makers classes. Although they have completed their K-12 experience, their gifts are still being refined, whether at two—or four-year colleges and universities, in the military, or in the workforce.
Based on the information I gathered from Ms. Sallie Wiggins, senior counselor at CHS, the percentages of students going to any of the above include:
Four-year colleges and universities: 87/165: 53%
Two-year colleges: 40/165: 24%
Military: 2/165 (although we have several four-year college students doing JROTC): 2/165: 0.01%
Workforce: 36/165: 22%
The Class of 2024 deserves the best in life, but they also know that to get the best, you have to give your best, day in and day out. Things are to be worked for…planned for…and engaged in. Life owes no one anything. What you make of life is more about attitude than aptitude. When life knocks you down, you must fight to get back up.
In conclusion, I wish the Class of 2024 the following advice from our 26th US President, Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
--Theodore Roosevelt
So, Class of 2024, as Mr. Spock so often said, “Live long and prosper!”
Just remember where you came from and who loved you first.
Dr. David O’Shields is the School District 56 Superintendent
Photos by Vic MacDonald-The Clinton Chronicle Editor
