Editorial:

Graduation is a time to renew optimism

Posted 5/23/23

It’s been years since my beat included coverage of K-12 education and, until moving to the Powell Tribune, I hadn’t really covered a college aside from collegiate sports since I was a …

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Editorial:

Graduation is a time to renew optimism

Posted

It’s been years since my beat included coverage of K-12 education and, until moving to the Powell Tribune, I hadn’t really covered a college aside from collegiate sports since I was a college student myself.

However, even after leaving the education beat, I’ve almost always found an excuse to cover a graduation ceremony.

It’s maybe somewhat odd for someone who skipped his own college graduation and only remembers being uncomfortably hot during my high school one, but graduations never fail to make me feel optimistic about the world.

These days, me saying I’m optimistic for the future will often elicit a questioning glance, like “you’re someone who actually reads the news daily and yet are somehow optimistic?” And yes, I understand there are a lot of issues in the world. I’ve seen inflation firsthand — wasn’t there a time not that long ago when chicken wings were 25 cents and a footlong sub could be had for $5 — I just received another increase in my property valuation which will lead to an even higher mortgage payment, and I get questions from my two children about issues I had never thought of when I was their age. The times are certainly changing and not always for the better.

However, I like to think my wife and I are raising two boys who can, in some small way, make the world a better place. And knowing the communities of the Big Horn Basin I have lived and worked in, I’m confident there are many other parents with the same goals. Some of those parents were there to watch their children graduate from Northwest College on May 13 with a certificate, associates or bachelors. Many were in attendance Sunday to watch their Shoshone Learning Center and Powell High School students graduate with a diploma.

If we trust our community, shouldn’t we be excited about the future lives of the children our friends and neighbors have raised? It’s said so often it may be a cliche, but that doesn’t make it any less true — this is a great place to raise kids. So, if we believe that much, we should believe that the children from our community who just graduated will go out and be a positive good for the world, whether right in Powell or across the globe.

When I’m at a graduation, I see faces of students we’ve covered, sons and daughters of friends, students going on to top colleges, going into the military or right to a job. Whatever they’re off to, I’m optimistic the vast majority will prove my optimism was not misplaced.

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