High school graduation week is always a powerful reminder of how quickly time races by, bringing to mind how long it’s been since we each went through that rite of passage.

Mine was 47 years ago (my graduation photo is attached) and I’ll soon either have to go to our 50th reunion or else add to the list of excuses for why I haven’t gone in the past. Thanks to social media, I stay in touch with a fair number of friends from the mid-1970s and like them all — politics notwithstanding. But it’s a long trek back to the Wyoming mountains and unlike many of them, I’m neither retired nor have any intention of giving up this rewarding but extremely time-consuming editorship anytime soon. I will always prefer creating new memories to reliving old ones.

We’ll have extensive coverage of south Pacific County graduations in the June 15 edition. This is the 30th such ceremony we’ve covered during my time here, but some of the excitement still rubs off on me. I am filled with hope for all the graduates of Pacific County and the U.S. as they prepare to embark on the next chapter of their lives. But it is such a messy time in some ways. I worry about them.

I’ve been spring cleaning in my office the past week — actually, it’s almost “decade cleaning,” since I’m going through and throwing out or giving away lots of stuff that’s been gathering dust for ages. (I just made a major gift to the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum, with plenty more to go.) Among the things that turned up were some unbound newspapers from 2001, including our graduation edition. It breaks my heart every time I see it, as one bright and promising senior didn’t live very long after that. Life is full of shoals. Let’s be good to one another, and care for those young ones.

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