Congratulations, Class of 2012: Traditional Graduation Exercises to Be Held Tomorrow Evening

The 110 members of the Winthrop High Class of 2012 will march onto Miller Field tomorrow (Friday) evening before a large crowd of proud relatives, friends, and, especially, parents to receive their diplomas in traditional exercises.

For the parents who will be watching their sons and daughters step to the podium when their name is called, no doubt they will be thinking of how fast time has gone by since they first brought their child by the hand to pre-school and kindergarten, sentiments expressed in the lyrics from a song in the musical Fiddler on the Roof:

Where is the little girl I carried?

Where is the little boy at play?

I don’t remember getting older,

When did they?

A high school graduation is a singular event in the life of every community, especially a small one such as ours, where almost everybody knows one of the graduates or their families. All of us share the happiness and sense of achievement of our young people who will be receiving their diplomas.

For the grads, their high school graduation marks both an end and a beginning. The grads no longer are children, either in the eyes of the law or in reality. They are full-fledged adults who will be leaving the sheltered harbor, where they have been protected from the full fury of life’s storms and vicissitudes by their families and teachers, and embarking on a journey which none of them will be able to anticipate, but which will be full of surprises, both joyful and tearful.

We congratulate the Class of 2012 for all of the accomplishments that have earned them the right to step onto that podium tomorrow evening.

We know we join with the entire Winthrop community in wishing them fair weather both tomorrow evening (the forecast is for a perfect evening) and in the years ahead.