We have reached the final week of May after a bittersweet long weekend, one of celebration — congrats grads! — and remembrance for our fallen soldiers. 

On Sunday, Park County School District 1 celebrated 141 graduates from Powell High School, The Shoshone Learning Center and Powell's virtual school. A day later, for Memorial Day, people gathered at Crown Hill Cemetery and at the American Legion post to honor our area's soldiers and their supreme sacrifice. 

It may be fitting to have this weekend feature both a highlight of many people's lives, not just the grads but families as well, but also a time to remember those who fought to ensure our graduates have as bright of a future as they do. 

I'm also thankful to live at a time where our graduates, even those who go into the armed forces, aren't that likely to be in a warzone within the year. That’s a welcome change from the Vietnam War years, when many of our area veterans were graduating and heading to Southeast Asia, or when I graduated high school, in 2005, knowing my fellow grads who were going into the service had a good chance of deploying to active war in Iraq or Afghanistan. 

While the international situation is tense right now, with war in Ukraine and the Middle East, and sabre rattling in Iran, we're not involved in any large scale wars that our current generation of graduates need worry about personally. 

So thank you to the soldiers who gave their all, and to those who suffered for decades after serving and have since passed away. Your sacrifices paved the way for the celebrations of Sunday, enabling a new crop of high school grads to have a bright future ahead.