Hastings High School - Saxon Yearbook (Hastings, MI)

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comes very steep. Here and there welcome shade is cast by mountain trees; but often the traveler must climb over long stretches of hard, gray rock, steadily up hill all the way. Another path seems to lie on one continuous plain and is traveled by a large company of people. The pilgrims are carefree and joyous, thoughtlessly following the crowd. The remaining pathway winds gradually down- ward. The multitudes, which travel the well beaten path, seem content and the majority careless of their goal. Occasionally a travel-worn pilgrim halts as if meditating whether or not to retrace his steps, but as he gazes at the steep incline behind him and as the crowds go surging by. he shakes his head wearily and continues on his course. He realizes that the path has become more steep and Class Motto—4 That this is an age of wonderful opportunities we hear on every side, and the truth of it is patent to every thinking person. The college graduate, the high school graduate, is told in most eloquent words that he has only to go forth into the world, grasp the opportunity which awaits him and march forward triumphantly on the road to success. Wc, the class of nineteen-eleven, arc standing today as so many classes have stood before us, with Commencement Parts Salutatory it will be a difficult task to make the attempt to return. As we follow the company with our eyes, this path disappears from view, and we are aroused from our reflections to a realization of this truth: that the future of each of us, whether our lives shall be lofty in their ideals, or commonplace, or vulgar, de- pends upon the path we choose. Whether we shall climb the rugged way to the temple of Truth, there to have the clear vision of things that are, or whether we shall be content to linger in the low- lands of life, knowing and caring for naught but self, or whether wc shall go with willing feet in the way that disappears from view, depends largely upon our decision at the parting of the ways. HAZEL LAWRENCE. ‘Know Thy Opportunity. ” our school days past and over, looking out upon the life beyond, with its golden future so full of promise and achievement, looking out upon the world, with its beauty, charm and enchantment; and looking thus we see stretched before us the broad, white pathway through life, which we hope to make our own. striving only to attain that great ideal of a beautiful and perfect character, and we arc not disheartened, but rather encouraged for we

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Commencement Parts V ale dic tor)) time when we are enrolled in that larger register, the register of life. Are we ready to answer every roll call of duty and stand sentinel to guard the safety and sacredness of our public institutions? In Salu In behalf of the members of the class of nine- teen-eleven I extend to all a most cordial welcome. It gives us pleasure to greet the former graduates and the kind friends, who have so willingly and cheerfully contributed their time and means to the support of our High School. While we regret the breaking up of old asso- ciations, the future holds a charm for us all. Up to this time our pathway has been more or less se- cluded. We have followed the guiding hand of parents, friends and teachers and have wandered half carelessly along the little way we have come. Roses have bloomed in our pathway, but they have not been of the thornless variety by any means. Occasionally, as we journeyed, far sighted companions pointed out a temple far up the moun- tain side. Our untrained eyes could but faintly dis- cern its glistening white pillars, hid among the sur- rounding trees. This, they told us, was the temple of Truth, and we resolved to climb the pathway of which wre had caught occasional glimpses, and enter the wonderful place. the larger sense, we would not say good-bye, but rather in that larger spirit of helpfulness and at- tainment, bid you God-speed. LOIS VELTE. latory Today the gradually broadening pathway seems at first glance to come to an end; but, as we look more closely we realize that instead of ending, it has begun to divide and distinct pathways diverge from the one we have been traveling. We have come to the parting of the ways, but we scarcely realize that the ways are parting because we can see travelers in each path and they seem to be calling greetings across to each other. We even catch snatches of a song and laughter, because the paths are pleasant ones. Multitudes are passing and many hesitate at the place where the road forks; some cast eager glances toward the tall white pillars of the temple high on the mountain side, then at the huge rocks in the pathway, and the barren places, where the sun beats pitilessly upon the ambitious ones, but the majority go with willing feet along one of the other paths. We notice that after a little way the roads diverge more and more widely; the one leading to the temple makes abrupt ascents and its way be-

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Commencement Parts Class Motto know that with the desire always comes the op- portunity. We are living in a wonderful world today, an era of progress and advancement without parallel. Man, with his powerful intellect, is reaching out as never before along the lines of research and in- vestigation, and there must needs be great oppor- tunities to enable him to perfect the great things of which he is capable. To the primitive man. in intellect scarcely above the animal, there came a time when there was born within him a desire for development, for things higher, and with that desire always came the means of fullilling it, and there swept over the world a wave of progress and development which has continued until the present time. We speak of these eras of progress and of the great reformations, and what were these but the call of the human soul for higher things, for the opportunity to advance towards perfection. Strange as it may seem, we are often told that opportunity knocks but once at every man’s door. We hear it from the platform, the pulpit, and the press. Even we of this High School were told this most eloquently a short time ago, and were urged not to be like the belated passenger turning the corner as the train pulled out from the station, for- ever too late. Never was teaching more pernicious, more untrue than this. Opportunity is as patient and everlasting as the goodness of our Heavenly Father. It comes from Him, and is always waiting for the discouraged, despairing soul. Of course, it is given to very few to have a great opportunity present itself which seems a turning point in their lives by which they find themselves in the world’s list of the great in art, literature, medicine, music, or abstruse learning. But true success in life does not necessarily mean the accumulation of great wealth or the attainment of social or literary position. Success, as our Heav- enly Father means it, is the faithful performance of the common every-day duties of life in which the small opportunities presented seem more for the development of character than worldly success, and are ofttimcs unappreciated. In the most common, prosaic lives there are always occasions for culture and self-development, and for the making of what- soever things are honest, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are just, and whatsoever things are of good report. However, let us remem- ber the faithful performance of the small things of life is but paving the way to the broader life, which will some time present itself and for which these small occasions have prepared us. Many are the illustrations I could give of great men who have achieved wealth and success in the face of what seemed unsurmountable difficulties, but what greater one could I mention than our own Abraham Lincoln, whose chances of advancement in life seemed so few as to be almost unnoticeable, but whose desire was so intense that out of dis- couragement itself he developed opportunities