Opinion & Entertainment

As a 57-year-old man standing before my bathroom mirror, I see silver strands of hair, cracks around my face and clothes that hang loose because of muscles I no longer seem to need at my age. The face looking back at me, eyes heavy from years of memories of good times and bad times. I often just stare back at the stranger in the mirror, I no longer recognize the man staring back at me. What the reflection doesn’t show is that there still lives a young man behind eyes that seemed to be failing me more each year as time rolls on; the person inside me is still full of energy, ambition, and the sense that life is still unfolding.

Natural disasters happen and communities see the destruction immediately. Homes, businesses, stores, schools are damaged, flooded, or just gone. The power lines are down, neighborhoods are left with debris and in some cases parts of other people’s properties are found in your front yard where the family car once parked. Long after roads are cleared and buildings are rebuilt another form of damage remains. This is the unseen psychological impact on survivors.

A season of endings and beginnings will define the moment when Olney and Newcastle seniors step across the graduation stage. In that brief walk, they carry years of memories, friendships, and lessons, but they also step into a future that is wide open. Graduation is more than a ceremony; it is a turning point where familiar routines will give way to new possibilities and adventures, and these graduates will begin to shape their lives and reflect on their hopes, values, and ambitions.