All across the county, students are taking the final few steps necessary before strutting their stuff across the commencement stage to receive the rewards of their academic labor.

It is a season of old meeting new, ‘goodbyes’ hurled in a flurry with the hopes that the next chapter of life is filled with just as many ‘hellos.’ Graduation cards with a few bucks tossed in from a loved one, which will be placed in a storage tub labeled ‘graduation 2023’ until a trip down memory lane is the next destination. Parties and celebrations will mark a send-off to even higher education, entering the workforce, or taking a well deserved break before making the decision on what to do next.

But all of that will come after the pomp and circumstance dies down in just a few weeks. For now, we encourage our young students to not let up on the gas just yet! A few more weeks of extra pushing and hard work may be the thing that closes the gap.

Not only remain dutiful to your studies in this last leg of the race, but also remember to take the time to thank those impactful teachers you learned so much from. Tip your hat to the janitors and staff of your school who have watched over and cared for your daily spaces since the day you started. Let your classmates know that you enjoyed sharing an educational journey with one another for so long. In a way, the class of 2023, like all those before it, have been its own little community that will soon dissolve into hundreds of individual lives.

But the clock has not yet ticked midnight, and there is time to live as a Senior in high school just a bit longer. Don’t waste it.

The end will be here soon enough, and although it may still seem like right now graduation will be a year and a day away, keep your eyes open and take in the small things that you may have overlooked these past four years.

These early spring days have begun to heat up to a summer’s swelter, just as these young lives are coming to a higher level of education that will hopefully guide them through the next step in life. Keep pressing on! The finish line is in view.