A FEW WORDS TO THE SENIORS IN THE CLASS OF 1999

Dear Graduating Senior of 1999.

The time is coming, the plans are being made and in your mind you can't wait for the day to come. Graduation is a special time in your life. It is a time to move on. And it perhaps is one of the biggest leaps you will ever take. 1999 will always be a special year for you and your class. It will mark a milestone in your life, a stone that has been engraved with every tear, accomplishment and defeat that may have come your way. Each dance you attended, story you told, each friend you made have all been recorded on this stone. Your job is to protect and preserve it for the wearing of the years to come to help keep all your memories together. Hold on to your memories for as long as you can. Remember all the people who have touched your life in different ways, those who encouraged and those who discouraged. They have made you stronger. Say thanks to your parents for raising you right, giving you good direction in all you chose to do, for giving you the chance to explore your dreams and for helping in achieving your goals. From time to time, you may have disagreed with your parents' words of wisdom. However, you must realize that they were once your age, and they know what is going on in your life. At a time of a thousand emotions, you need your parents to fall back upon for support and reassurance. Your parents serve as pillars in your life. They allow you to build a roof, floor and sides to your future. You may have been through some trying times, and it may have appeared to be unbearable and you just wanted to stop. Persistence is the key. On graduation day your building will be complete. You are now given the chance to look back and see a completed structure of your goals and dreams and wonder what is inside. Your diploma will serve as your key. It will open many new doors, just like the key that opens the city. Today you are given the chance to open some of those dreams. No matter how proud your parents may be, it does bear down on them. Here they have a child who they have raised from birth, and now today you have become an educated adult. Your parents know that with a positive attitude, self-determination, and strong willpower you will achieve all your goals you set. Today your family and friends will be so proud at the moment when your name is called to receive something you and your parents have worked so hard for, a document so rich in value that money cannot begin to pay for the time you have dedicated to your years in school. In the eyes of the community today you have become an active member and an educated adult.

The future is yours. The choices you will make may or may not impact the world as a whole, but you need to remember you have the power to make anything possible. Goals are like hurdles on the track field: You have to learn to jump over them and learn not to go around them. If you knock some down while trying, you have at least made the attempt to achieve. No famous person has ever achieved every goal without error. You just have to believe in yourself and what you want from life.

Before you leave your school, take one last look at a place you have spent much of your time and remember what got you to where you are. When you begin the walk in and the crowd watches from above, stand tall, smile, be proud and keep in mind the people watching are very proud of you. As you sit in your chair, listen to the words that the speakers speak, to the words the choir sings. They are all addressed to you. Listen to the names of your classmates. And as you do, stop and think about one nice thing. There will be some you never met before and some you spent so much of your time with. Today marks the end of your class. Savor the moment and remember your fondest memories of your days in your school. When your name is called, stand up, walk proudly, shake the hands firmly. And when your hand grasps the diploma, look up and smile. You have done it! Turn your tassel and walk on down. You have obtained one of the biggest goals in life.

On the night of graduation, the most powerful choir of angels will play your song, the song of triumph, joy and hope as your memories are placed on the stone you have created. As prayers are being prayed, the Lord above will shine the brightest stars in the sky. Tonight, they will belong to you. Your only task is to catch them before they go out.

The role of the community and parents is to also listen to the graduation speeches. We should be warned: Here they come, Recent high school graduates tend to be a proud bunch of teen-agers. They have earned such pride. Their accomplishments are so huge in their minds they can become a bit clouded. We as adults need to remember to be patient, be tolerant and to keep in mind that we to once had to explore the world like they are about to explore. We need to keep in mind that they will all begin to take down the tassels from the rearview mirror, and they will then be ready for what's next. We all have keep in mind that we can not bring them down to soon. We need to allow them the most opportunities we can to enjoy the moment and the recognition for a job well done. We also need to allow them to take some of their dreams and enjoy them. It is the precise moment in his or her life when you can dream of doing anything and being anyone. The rest of their lives have been designed to allow the graduates to narrow the dream they have.

The summer after high school graduation can be the most memorable, stimulating and a continuous learning experience. The graduate will learn to work and develop true friendships, making good and bad judgments. The graduates should also take the chance to learn more about their parents. It is also a time for thinking for yourself to learn more about true love. This summer should be a free shot for graduates. We all should stand aside but not totally disappear. We should allow them to sleep in until one in the afternoon, learn how to drink coffee, explore the meaning of life, allow them to take road trips with their buds, allow them to make judgments whether good or bad. It is a time for them to learn about the meaning of life. We need to find the time to just sit quietly on the porch with our high school graduates, whether they are yours or your neighbors or just friends. We should talk to them as adults. We need to share a laugh or a story. We need to express the thrills and the angers of the day, or just listen.

It is a little hard not be a little envious of this year's graduating class. It will be an almost unimaginable New World when they reach the age of having high school graduates of their own. This New World will have been the world they have built themselves. It is a world they are about to create and explore. Our job, the job of parents and community is to give them the room, the time and the encouragement to begin that imagining. All graduates should take the time to seize the moment, a moment that will never occur again. They need to take the time to thank the people who have touched their lives. We all need to be proud of the young adults as they begin a new chapter in their life. Congratulations to the Class of 1999.

Nick Palisch of Cape Girardeau is a communicator in the communications unit of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.