By Allen Hamrick
Two thousand twenty is a year to be remembered by the majority as one that the history books could leave out, a year that started out as any other year with people looking forward to the future and making plans. Students looked forward to spring break and the challenges of school work and sports. Then, in early March, the pandemic hit, and the world as we know it changed for everybody everywhere. One of the hardest hit standards of daily life was the school system, and the idea of a great life and a great future for each student changed somewhat and future is left more to chance than rite of passage.
It will take unquestionable character and grit to overcome such adversity as we now see happening. If a great change is to be made in our country, and the American dream to still remain a reality, the minds of our youth must replicate reason and problem solving in a natural way without fear and warmongering. It is said that true character is best formed in stormy seas.
The Clay County High School graduating class of 2020 has been accustomed to adversity for the last few years. The flood and pandemic are but two of the events they have had to deal with as they built their character brick by brick leading up to graduation day. Their future has been in uncertain limbo for the past few months, and even graduating in a normal fashion was up in the wind. However, with guidance and tenacity, the leaders of our school system found a way to overcome and give this graduating class a graduation that will be remembered as historic.
With facemasks a priority and social distancing a must, graduation was moved to the football field with wide open spaces.
There were many awards given, funded by the people of this county and beyond through programs and events to help the youth in their quest for higher learning. Clay County High School will bid farewell to some intelligent and hard working young men and women who will no doubt be an influence in the fields they enter into. The graduates will now embark on a new journey and accept new roles in society as participants and leaders that will ultimately play a big part of this country’s future.
With the unsettled politics in this country and the economy in a bind, the future will be bright for those who will take the bull by the horns and change this country while keeping the founding principles in mind. Life is an opportunity for our youth because they are intelligent and have zeal to change the world. Sure, hearts will be broken when friendships that have gone on since childhood seemingly come to an end and parents suddenly come down with empty nest syndrome, but it is in the concourse of life that we change and make a path of our own necessary to sustain the ongoing process we call life. It has to be so that the columns that hold our country up stay strong and vigilant.
Many of the seniors will be going on to higher learning, others will go and serve in our country’s military to defend our rights and freedoms and others will assume their roles as hard working individuals that makes this state and country strong. Now, graduates, it is time to move on, and there are time tested and proven rules to form your minds – talk very little, listen a whole lot, reflect on what has passed, never forget where you come from, distrust your own opinion and value and respect others who deserve it. Remember also that every person as to their character is the mortal being of the age that they live in. Society expects that very few can elevate themselves above the ideas of the time they live in; go out and prove them wrong. To all the students of Clay County High School, we, the citizens of Clay County wish nothing but the best for you.
