Life

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Congratulations, Class of 2012

By Bill Moss, Published: June 8, 2012

They will walk across the stage tonight and somehow look a lot taller and older than when they tottered into kindergarten 13 years ago.Thirteen years ago or yesterday? Sometimes it is hard to tell.
They were in second grade on Sept. 11, 2001, when teachers herded them into locked classrooms and tried to explain the explainable. You could always remember their year in school, for they graduated from first grade in '01, fifth grade in '05, eighth grade in '08, picked up their diploma in '12.
They were in fifth grade when George W. Bush took his second oath of office. They were in ninth grade when Barack Obama became president.
They were in the fifth grade when Roy Williams won his first national title at Carolina, ninth grade when he won his second. They were in 10th grade when Mike Krzyzewski won his fourth title at Duke.
Friday night, they will stride, heads held high, across the platforms in gyms and stadiums, a high school senior climbing the steps, a high school graduate stepping off the other side.
Soon parents will see them off, to college campuses, military service or fulltime jobs. Before they do, we at the Lightning offer our thunderous congratulations and our parting advice:
• Message, tweet and email all you want; we'll read them all. But nothing is quite as good as the old Alexander Graham Bell invention. Call home. Home is never too busy to hear what you're up to, your triumphs, your challenges, your fears, your joy. It's never too early or too late.
• Hit the books. Take a break after your last class, a short one. Yes, getting out of class at 2 in the afternoon, facing no chores, no club or no varsity practice, seems to create the gift of time. It's fleeting. Keep up the study habits that got you into college. Learn for the joy of learning. Ask questions. Participate. Challenge yourself.
• Expand your horizon. Get out of the dorm and onto the quad. Extract the phone from your ear and talk to someone you've never seen on Facebook. Make a friend the old-fashioned way, by looking them in the eye and asking them where they're from or how they make the Frisbee fly like that.
• Eat well. Exercise. Rest. Study. Laugh. Repeat. College campuses have a great selection of healthy food these days. Skip the burgers and try the Asian line and salad bar some days. Find a trail. Run.
• Remember the way home. It's fun to be away from home and liberating. Remember that the folks back home miss you every day. Good as the phone call and messages are, they're no match for a visit. You may bring laundry.
• Sing out. Play out. Make us proud.