Where does the time go?
By Staff
Jason Cannon
Over the course of the next few weeks, our local high school seniors will don their caps and gowns and make their way across the stage. This annual walk is a right of passage where children become adults and decide how they want to face the world and what kind of impression they want to make on their fellow man.
Ironically enough, as these students prepare to close another chapter in their scholastic books, I am preparing to return to a page I'd dog-eared a decade ago.
I recently received notice that my 10-year high school reunion was approaching. As in most cases, after graduation my fellow classmates of Pleasant Grove High School went in a thousand different directions all at once.
Some of us went off to college in varying states. Some went to trade school. Some went to work. Some joined the military.
Others virtually dropped off the face of the planet.
Sadly, others passed away.
If there's one thing I wish I had done better as I look back on the last 10 years, it's keep in closer touch with my former classmates.
That can be a difficult task.
When you graduate high school you leave the confines of a structured setting. You go off, meet new people and make new friends.
Most importantly, you take on more responsibility.
Oftentimes, your old friends become a casualty of a process called growing up.
Through the series of emails and letters, which are all being used to plan this reunion, I've been put back in touch with people I haven't seen or spoken to in what will be 10 years next week.
You come to realize that your friends from high school are special in their own right. Those friends were in the trenches with you at every food fight and stood and watched while you did all the stupid things that teenagers do. Sometimes they got you in trouble and sometimes they got you out.
So, if I could offer one piece of advice to the Class of 2008 it would be to take a look at those around you as your principal calls them to the stage and hands them their diploma.
You'll look back on this day and wonder where a lot those people are.
You'll be interested to see how their lives turned out.
You'll be astonished at people's successes and people's failures.
Most of all, you'll be amazed at what kind of men and women your classmates have become in only 10 years.
Good luck and congratulations to all Russellville and Franklin County graduates. I hope you'll use the next 10 years to create some magnificent stories at your 10-year reunion.
