Time of Transitions

Today is graduation for our local high school seniors. For many of the kids, it is a day of mixed emotions. On the one hand, graduation represents the completion of years of study, and just one step toward achieving a degree in higher education.

On the other hand, graduation will bring the end to many friendships – not because of harsh words or bad feelings, but simply because life is about to move on. Whereas for years, these students had to look no further than the end of summer to see each other again, graduation creates a chasm measured in time as to when – or even if – paths will ever cross again.

It’s not until you leave school that you realize how you’ve come to depend on the routine laid out by the district and rely on those familiar faces in the halls.

Now these graduates will have to determine their own routine and discover the resilience necessary to successfully navigate college life, employment or military service – basically how to be a responsible grown up.

For some of these seniors, the transition will be relatively simple. They’ve embraced the possibilities that life after graduation offers, and have been preparing for a smooth entry into adulthood. These are the ones who have been active in the CV community and have mapped out a post-graduation plan.

On Saturday morning, Steve Pierce joined my husband Steve and I to honor many of these seniors at a breakfast hosted by the Community Foundation of the Verdugos. The breakfast was an occasion to present scholarship funds to those recipients who truly represent the very best in our youth.

Sitting on the scholarship board of the First Christian Church of Glendale, I had the opportunity to read the accomplishments, hopes and dreams of those applying for scholarship money. The Community Foundation of the Verdugos, where our fund is seated, first vets the applicants to make sure they meet our scholarship criteria. Then the qualifying applications are forwarded to our committee so we can decide to whom we want to grant scholarship funds.

Reading the essays of what these young people have done and the contributions they hope to make through their fields of study is so inspiring. We had the opportunity to provide funding for students moving onto college to study astrophysics, medicine and law among other fields. There were also applicants seeking funding for vocational school for which we gladly wrote a check.

These are the young people who you’ll find along the route for the Montrose Christmas Parade or who were on hand to aid evacuees at CV High School during the Station Fire and subsequent floods, who offer to set up, serve or clean up at countless community events. They are focused, eager to help and dedicated to bettering their life and by doing so, bettering the lives of those they come in contact with.

I had the chance to speak to a couple of our recipients after the breakfast, to wish them continued success. Mostly however I wanted to tell them what they mean to us, to our community.

And how very proud we are of them.

Congratulations to the Class of 2012! May your every dream come true.

Next week we’ll share photos of today’s graduations in the foothills and of some of the scholarship presentations around the Crescenta Valley.

  robin goldsworthy