Purple Haze
"Oh the Places You will Go"
By Amy Kimmel

June 9, 2016

On Thursday evening, the friends and family of the class of 2016 will be cheering on the graduates as they walk across the stage and accept their diplomas. It is a milestone long looked forward to, and 13 years in the making. If you ask most of the graduates, they are ready to move on and are fully aware of how long it's taken to get to where we are. Of course all the parents are emotional and teary-eyed, because they don't understand where the time has gone. Whether sentimental, nostalgic, ready to move on, or indifferent, we can all agree that Northern played an influential role in each of our lives, and the countless hours spent here will not soon be forgotten. Whether going in state or cross country to execute plans after high school, there is at least a small piece in each of us that will miss our years spent in the Polar Bear district.

Annalise Armstrong, valedictorian of the class of 2016, will be heading to Messiah College in the fall to study pre-med and play field hockey. She will be delivering the commencement speech at this year's graduation ceremony.  Armstrong reflects; "We have the chance to create our futures. Although in this world we will face adversity, hope and joy can be discovered and I pray you find it."

Following graduation practice on Wednesday, members of "8 white" (8th grade team at NMS) received a folder, put together by each student only four years earlier. The "Me Folder" contains notes, essays from 8th grade, goals and predictions we set for ourselves and a letter written to our future selves. After listing goals and suggestions for myself, I concluded my note with "Now that you [I] know what you [I] really have achieved, I hope the outcome is as bright as I thought it would be." I am here to report four years later that it is.

After reflecting on the Dr Suess poem, "Oh the Places You will Go," Ms. Smith reflects in her letter that some choices we will be faced with will have a small impact on our lives, while others will have much larger impacts on not only ourselves but others as well. "You will be the 'master of your fate' Choose well," she instructs.

As I reflect back over each class throughout my academic career, I have fond memories from nearly all, and even fonder memories of the teachers that guided me through each one. I went through and calculated that from kindergarten to 12th grade, I had approximately 70 teachers. Wow! It would be an understatement to say they impact a student's life. After more approximations, I concluded that I usually spend 1,215 hours at school every year. Altogether, that's about 15,066 total hours of education, or 20 months, night and day!

Now that is something worth celebrating!