Fredericksburg High School - Rapahanoc Yearbook (Fredericksburg, VA)

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Rp PRi-mrtDc 1921 The parting of friends calls for tokens, and a friend’s farewell gift is advice founded upon experience. Before us is Life, the four-lettered term of our present conscious all. What is it and how shall we deal with it Others have won, others have lost. What say they? “Life,” they calmly answer, “is you. You are Life.” We are further told that we realize that fact but do not appreciate it. Instinct answers in the affirmative, but experience does not confirm the answer. As we meet life’s many problems we shall look about for an ever-successful solution. Whether or not we shall try all other methods, and for lack of faith fail to see within ourselves the true answer to life’s conundrums, will determine whether we shall be successful or failures, whether the Universal Plan is true or false. We have often been told that life is what we make it. but more often have men struggled with life upon the principle that mankind moulds their existence without considering their own wills. It is the inexorable law, it is an old cure for an old trouble, but it is the simple solution. I he Great Law applies to us, class of 1921 ; we are masters of our fate. The individual is supreme in that he can determine the course of his own life. The individual is supreme in that it is his privilege to allow others to help him and his privilege to encourage others to help him—the principle of success. The indi¬ vidual is supreme in that he may effectively apply the laws of justice, labor, and love to his own troubles. The individual is supreme in that it is his privilege to allow others to help him and the secret of life are optional; they are given to those who do. To the individual has been given the privilege of casting his lot with either pan of the scales of chance. It is God’s own plan; it is natural; it is right. Lack of ability because of a lack of knowledge will cause a lack of initiative. We claim that we did not have the chance and that the world will not accept our services at their present value. We can overcome this handicap by bringing into practice a great law of justice (and of labor as well, for the trinity is inseparable) — do the right thing even tho you have been doing wrong; one more unjust action will always drag you farther from what you know to be right and what you instinctively desire; one more worthy deed will always lead you nearer. We allow opportuni¬ ties to roll by, we permit our troubles to augment because of a misconception of our ability, and we are weary idlers among the pilgrims along the Great Road. As temptations come to us, temptation to wrong ourselves, the observance of several inflexible rules can cast out this stumbling block to success. Do nothing which instinct tells you is wrong and which has been so proven. Perhaps the 41

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Fellow-Pupils, Men and Women: The parting of friends is the most living sadness of life, a sweet sorrow and compensation for which lies in grief’s beckoning toward better things. We are here this night to say farewell, to part from you and from each other, to say good-bye to friends. We have played and sung and quarreled thru the years, but we have loved and worked and hoped together. With one another we have struggled over the formation of Q, traced the curious curves of the Father of Waters, and were glad of the afternoon sunshine with its respite for play. We have heard the clock tick while with beating heart we fought the demon of forgetfulness and tried to be¬ come the hero of the hour in a spelling match, and on spring days we have trodden woodland paths in search of woodland flowers, that we might combine youthful theory with youthful fact. With flowing sash and freshly laundered blouse we have proudly trudged along the shaded streets of our town and thru the big arch of the cemetery on warm May days—our class. We sadly smile as we recall these incidents of our earlier years. These mem¬ ories were once passing incidents, living realities, part of our lives. The smile which they call forth symbolizes in the most effective deg.ee the tender emotions within us this night. With less aid of time’s reflecting power to stamp the memories in our hearts, we have expectantly awaited the first question on an examination, looking at one another in dread, and on cold fall days we have heard the shrill cry, “Ready High School?” We have become talented musicians in a Kitchen Orchestra, and we have lustily sung the finale of a Senior play—our class. We have loved, labored, and won, but we have lived together. Tonight we leave one another, our first companions. It is our first parting of the ways. Though we enter higher institutions, tomorrow we assume the responsi¬ bilities of life, tomorrow we enter manhood and womanhood. “We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.” It is the spreading dawn of hope, and as the light slowly breaks upon the plains of the future, we are warm with the expectation, yet timid with fear, and filled with sweet memories of the previous day. 40

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RFvPRHPvrmC 1921 opportunity to gain seems so propituous that we permit an unjust deed, or perhaps we enter into such a project because we consider a former one as having succeeded, but we overlook the fact that justice is inevitable, that its times of payment vary, that value is given for value received. Perhaps the case requires one or a combination of the fundamental laws. Perhaps we must undertake worthy things even tho there is no present necessity; perhaps we must persevere; perhaps we must not carry out an undertaken work in such a way that there is an unfavorable reaction upon ourselves; perhaps we must do the right thing even tho we suffer thereby or receive no reward; justice done others will react favorably upon us. 1 hus we see that we control the making of our own lives; ours is the privilege to surmount difficulties by applying the laws of the great virtues to our ills; ours is the privilege to allow and encourage others to apply them to those ills, for only as we use them, only as we are just, energetic and helpful, will others be the sam e toward us—not by way of charity, but as a means of due payment; and the principle of success is that we shall succeed only as we permit and assist others to help us. How simple we find its workings after using the Universal Law, how difficult is life if we fail to have faith and do not use it. Men who have failed either had not the faith to apply it, or having applied it mistook the form of its reward, or did not have the faith to again try it upon finding its reward delayed. If they found that the less they applied the laws of justice, labor and love, the less was their success, why weren’t they convinced that they could succeed if inward effort were used in pro¬ portion to outward force? Those who succeed attain their desires only thru the Great Law; they wonder why some of their fellow-men do not try the simple method. Greatness is always simplicity. Classmates, let us go forth and meet the world armed with this old idea as an infallible weapon, protected by this two-edged sword of ever-new possibilities. Forewarned, let us test the effectiveness of this blade at every opportunity. We are impressed with the correctness of old truths presented us by their constant repetition or by their novel application, but we are convinced with their correctness only by a successful trial of their virtues. Forearmed, let us always use this weapon against our troubles, perseveringly if necessary, one-handed if we must, but ever faithfully. Now, classmates, the time has come for us to part. We shall meet as a class no more. The supreme moment has come, but we have lost while we have won. Let us go onward and upward, letting memories of school-days soothe us in our sorrow and inspire us in our effort. Friends, in the name of the class of 1921 I bid you farewell. 42