Westwood High School - Chipmunk Yearbook (Westwood, CA)

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Valedi HE days of slow and pains taking preparation for our journey into an unknown future are finished. The time has arrived when we must leave the halls of this institution forever. Now we stand at the margin of that great unexplored ocean the world. At this point must we cast aside all aids, break asunder all ties which have bound us to our Alma Mater and plunge into its depths, to sink or swim. We are not, however, leaping into an uncertain future without adequate preparation. Let us take inventory of our stock in trade, the aids without which we could not hope to succeed. First, we have youth, which meets all obstacles with a light heart and a cheerful smile. We have ambi- tion and hope, tin companions of youth; ambition to raise high ideals and aims, and hope which prompts us to continually strive to realize those ideals altho many times defeated in our purposes. Second, we have an education with all that the word implies in this modern day and age. Our choice of educational institutions could not have been more happy than when we decided to prepare our mental equipment at Westwood High. Here we have received training of incalculable value. Here have our erring feet been guided upon the clear path of mental and moral uplift and our minds furnished with an incentive toward the higher things of life. Today we start out to test our knowledge and put into practice our ideals. We muel answer for the use we make of our lives to each other, to the school, and to the world. And so we face life with its temptations and trials accoutred with youth, ambition, hope and an education. Lacking these we should be wrecked uoon the treacherous shoals of life before the voyage had fairly started. But as we today step from school life 7 ctory into the world, there is a precept, obedience to which is essential to our success and now is the time we should realize its importance. John Ruskin once inquired of an artist whose paint- ings combined excellency of drawing with beautiful col- oring how he obtained that effect. The reply of the artist was: “Know what you have to do. and do it. ‘ This.’’ writes Ruskin, “was concise and comprehen- sive. comprehensive not only as regards the branch of art to which it is temporarily applied, but as expressing the great principle of success in every direction of human effort: for 1 believe that failure is less fre- quently attributable to either insufficiency of means or impatience of labor than to a confused understanding of the thing actually to be done.” From these words of the great thinker we realize the value of choosing a definite goal, to gain which we should bend every faculty. We realize the wisdom of obtaining a clear conception of our duty, for the words apply to duty and may be paraphrased to read. “Know your duty and do it.” The aim of all education is to enable us to know our duty. As students of Westwood High we have every qualification for this and the ques- tion arises. “Will we?’’ The importance of our answer cannot be overestimated Before making the start in life we must not be without a realization of our obligations. Without this comprehension, without some supreme purpose in the world, our lives become as aimless as the course of a ship upon an uncharted sea, beaten and buff- eted from place to place, until the God of Storms sends it, with a final sweep of his awful ha d, beneath the troubled waves. In the professions our duty is clear and easily recog- nizable. If we are to become great lawyers, doctors, teachers, or authors, our duty is to perform our chosen

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school and a better “Chipmunk it will be because of the interest they took in what seemed at first a hopeless project. Some of our readers may wonder why we do not print a picture of our High School, and perhaps a little explanation should be given. Our High School building was not started until late in the summer, and was not ready for occupancy until 6 January. The students were then transferred to the new building, but the scaffolding and props were left up for the use of the painters this summer. The painters have not come yet and the scaffolding still remains with 11s; so that a picture of our school now would scarcely be artistic. When our next annual is published, however, we will try to give an idea of the place where we are spending some of the happiest days of our lives.

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work in the most efficient manner. The mechanic and the day-laborer should le governed by the same idea. Everybody who has work to do in this great world should make this the predominating lorce in his life, for “Know your duty and do it” is applicable to every form and phase of human endeavor. In this way wi:« the world be constantly bettered. In this way will the on- ward march of civilization be facilitated. In this way will you make a success of your earthly career. Thus in the daily labor of our lives the consciousness of duty is not so difficult to obtain but it is rather in the performance of it that we fail. It is, however, in our larger interests, those which concern us as men, i hat the greatest ambiguity exists. As long as the earth shall follow . s orbit Onough space will men be gov- erned by a great diversity of opinions. No two indivi- duals are constituted exactly alike and one man’s ideas concerning things religious and political may not con- form to the ideas of his fellow-men. Moreover times are constantly changing and with the change come new ideas, new principles, new conceptions of duty. We are at the present moment passing through times of grear na- tional importance. Never before in the history of the nation have we been called upon to decide more delicate questions of national honor. Never before has the necessity arisen for a clearer sense of duty, a straight- forward and fair policy to guide the ship of state un- swervingly to the harbor of national safety. Through all alterations, through all differences of thought, through times of peace and times of war, the fundamental guiding principle remains the same, “Do your duty as you see it.” If your idea of duty is to create reform, do it. If it is to aid the nation, do it. If it is to serve your God. do it. With the clear principles of your duty before you, strive with all your will power, with all your courage towards the realization of your ideals, towards the performance of your duties, and life will be a success. Classmates, as we enter let us choose our path of duty. Let us select some worthy aim and keeping it constantly in mind, strive will all our strength towards its accomplishment. Then when our earthly pilgrim- age is over and we have left these shores, we may rest in peace, knowing our lives have not been given in vain. R. C.. 2h.