It’s a proud moment for our city.
Another class of graduates is finishing secondary school in Nanaimo. It’s a wonderful achievement, and their wide smiles are well-deserved this month as they toss their grad caps, twirl in their prom attire and collect their diplomas.
Despite their relative youth, they’ve earned our respect, as making it from one end of high school to the other is no small feat. A lot of life lessons are yet to come, but these teens are graduating with their fair share of experience of the ways of the world. High school teaches hard lessons every day for five years. Difficult math problems and demanding compositions, yes, but just as significantly, everything that goes on in the corridors, the cafeteria, the gym, the smoke pit and the walk home from school. Today’s teens face challenges that just didn’t exist in the old days, as their day-to-day realities include social media interactions and those added dimensions of peer pressure and judgment.
Our graduating teens have made mistakes, as any of us are wont to do. When we’re young, sometimes those mistakes can seem huge and inescapable because of our limited perspective, so for our youths to overcome those things and succeed is an achievement worth celebrating.
The class of 2017 is a crop of really smart young women and men, and good citizens, too. Nearly every day we’ll come across some young person or another who is bright, well-adjusted, polite and personable and gives us reason to believe that the next generation will not only carry us forward, but lead and lift us up.
Which is why it’s a proud moment. We’ve played some part in helping to keep our young people safe and sound and positioned them, we hope, so that they can aspire, and so that they can dare to be driven by passion and purpose.
Good luck to all graduates. Congratulations on all your success – that is to say, your success so far.