TOLEDO – This is the season of high school graduations and the activities that go with it. As students, parents, and families enjoy the accomplishment, it is also time to think about the next chapters of life. Graduates, this marks the completion of the first major chapter of your lives; you have worked hard, overcome challenges, and reached an important milestone that deserves to be celebrated.
As you move forward, the next chapter will lead you toward college, skilled trades, military service, entrepreneurship, or the workforce. Each new opportunity ahead of you will help shape your future and open doors to new experiences and growth.
Another import chapter in life will be building meaningful relationships and creating a strong support system of family and life friends who will encourage and stand beside you through every season of life.
I also want to say that parents, families, teachers, and mentors have given guidance, encouragement, and sacrifices to help you as graduates reach this point. Dr. Misha Stredrick, Superintendent of Maritime Academy, reminds us that many of our high school graduates are first-generation graduate students.
Kate Fineske, Executive Director of Museum of the Great Lakes, who was the graduation speaker for Maritime Academy told students that “success is rarely linear. Life is not a straight line; life is like water – you must navigate currents of change.”Â
Fineske went on to advise students not to let social media guide their lives. Most people on social media are no smarter than you, she said, adding details about her own life’s challenges as a way of saying to students that life is not perfect.
Additionally, I cannot end this article without encouraging these new voters to make their voices heard. I heard Xernona Clayton (who the first Black TV show) speak in Atlanta, and she talked about the need to vote. She also said students should always do the right thing and treat people right. She said that, in the past, Grady Hospital in Atlanta would only let Black women have babies in that hospital on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is the kind of issue that reflects what voting is all about. Clayton had an impact on the Ku Klux Klan by treating the Grand Dragon as a person and not someone to fear. Her message about voting and treating people right will help graduates in their life journey.
Graduates of all schools, continue pursuing your dreams with courage and determination. Believe in yourselves, work hard, and never stop striving for excellence, because you absolutely have the ability to achieve great things in life.
Dr. Stredrick said that 24 seniors graduated from Maritime this year. Their salutatorian was Fernanda Fernandez and their valedictorian was Dontae Osley.
Maritime Academy offers career paths in culinary arts, arts, business, college preparation, and health care.
