Editorial—

Standing at the threshold

The members of the Yellow Springs High School Class of 2003 stand at the threshold of a wide-open world. Poised to graduate next week, the students must be approaching that threshold optimistically and proudly. “We can accomplish anything,” the graduates, like all who have stood there before them, seem to say.

In more than 50 households around Yellow Springs, plans are coming together: for graduation parties, for perhaps one last family trip and for what comes next. There are many anxious parents in those households, undoubtedly torn between holding onto their children and letting them go. Those children — now, really, young adults — cannot wait for what comes next in life: whether it’s traveling, going to school, getting a job.

That becomes clear after reading the responses submitted by graduating students at YSHS in the “senior special,” which will come out in next week’s News. Each student, like most 17- and 18-year-olds, is ready to cross that threshold and start the next phase of his or her life. Their plans may differ, but their hopes and dreams are similar. They want to see their world, make a difference, be happy. They should cherish and nurture those dreams and strive to make them all come true. They should work to make Yellow Springs proud.

As they approach that threshold, the students should remember the wise words of Algo Henderson, who served as the president of Antioch College from 1936 to 1947: “Lift yourself high enough to see beyond your neighborhood, the local customs and habits, the ideas that prevail in your environment, and look about for interesting people, attractive vocations and fresh ways of doing things; also speculate on the meaning of your life and how to create a good life for yourself.”

—Robert Mihalek