May 27, 2004

EDITORIAL

All dreams are possible for YSHS Class of 2004

There are many anxious households around Yellow Springs this week, as the members of the YSHS Class of 2004 and their families prepare for graduation. Graduating seniors are anxious to move on to more great adventures, while their parents anxiously juggle their emotions. June 3 will serve as a rite of passage, the culmination of a high school career for 54 students and the beginning of new experiences and challenges.

These students are poised to cross a threshold from childhood to adulthood, from Yellow Springs to the rest of the world. Though their plans differ widely, their hopes and dreams are similar: they want to travel, create art, make a difference, be happy. They have boundless potential, and they should nurture and cherish their dreams, because today all dreams are possible, all goals are within reach.

The members of the Class of 2004 will be remembered for many things: their brilliant, engaging video projects; their performances on stage and in concert; their challenging, insightful artwork; their many academic achievements; their success on the athletic field, including the championship runs by the boys soccer and basketball teams.

Perhaps most important, they will be remembered for how they expressed their feelings and ideas about student-adult relationships and how they responded to events during this difficult year. Many kids have had to grow up quickly this year, trying to understand the arrest of an assistant football coach and friend; the discovery of the remains of a missing student; and the death of a classmate in a car accident that left another student seriously injured. Such tragedies have had an immediate impact on this community, but nowhere have these events been felt more intensely than in Yellow Springs High School.

As the students’ responses in the senior supplement in this week’s News show, Yellow Springs High School continues to produce articulate, clever and creative students. As graduation approaches, the community should be proud of the way our students have handled this year, with poise and maturity.

—Robert Mihalek