Lafayette High School - Legend Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 9 text:

Dear Graduates of the Class of June 1956: On graduation day everyone will wish you success and happiness. Parents, friends, and teachers will join in all good wishes for your welfare. Many people will think primarily of your material advancement. Many will measure your success in terms of the money, the position, and the possessions you may acquire over the years. There are, however, other characteristics of a happy, successful life, and it is these I wish for you. I hope that each day of your life you will find joy in some simple thing about you, the wind, the sun, the cool rain. There is a bit of beauty everywhere for each of us to enjoy. It may be only a display in a florist's window. Stop for a minute and drink in the color and the fragrance. Go on refreshed. Carry this bit of love- liness home with you. Blake a point each day of saying something friendly, encouraging, or pleasant to someone. There is a twofold joy in such a practice. You will make someone else happy, and, therefore, you will be happy. Happiness is contagious. It is also a real responsibility. How much happiness do you contribute daily to the atmosphere of your home? How often do you bring a responsive smile to someone's lips and a friendly reply to what you say? Everyone wants to be liked. Everyone wants to be friendly. That person is successful whose life is characterized by a friendly liking for people. You will be happy if you refrain from being a worrier. Think through your problems. Come to a decision. Then stand by your decision. If it is necessary to change your decision, do so-, but do so without constantly fretting and worrying. Have the courage to act decisively. Accept the fact that work is a necessary part of everyone's life. Decide to like your work. There can be joy in working at anything and in doing it well. The lazy loafer is never a truly happy person. Begin now to plan for your next four or five years, especially if what you are doing now is not what you hope to do eventually. We all have to serve a form of apprenticeship, no matter what our work may be. While doing so, we can plan and prepare for the future. In this way we can accept the present in a happier frame of mind. We know that later on we can make a change because we have planned and prepared for it. Engage, also, in a hobby or activity apart from your present occupation. Do not depend upon one thing in life for inspiration and joy. If you can direct yourself along these lines, if you can find a little beauty about you daily, if you can share this beauty with others, if you can say something kind daily which will give happiness to others, if you can stop being fretful and wor- risome, if you can make decisions and stand by them, if you can take joy in your present work and at the same time prepare for the future, then you will be a happy, successful person. And that is what I wish for each of you. May your life be a happy one. May you bring happiness to others. Affectionately, your principal, Q, fiaaaq.. Five

Page 8 text:

'-I-. C3 O-4 - v-4 KJ prim icate this book to our ed We gratefully d MRS. MARY C. BUDA

Page 10 text:

Grade Advisers Dear Boys and Girls, Undoubtedly, you are eagerly awaiting the com- pletion of your high school career, and looking forward to your entrance into the adult world. May you carry along with you the ambitions and friendliness that you have shown at Lafayette! Today, a world wrought with social, political, and spiritual unrest, looks to you for leadership. In the hearts of people of your generation lies the hope of the world. May you find that an increasing amount of your energy is being dedicated to friendships, old and new, and to a widening search for those simple things of life to which youth is so often blind. I congratulate you on your accomplishments and trust that the future holds in store for each of you contentment. happiness, and the fulfillment of cherished ideals. Your Grade Adviser, AGNES E. OIROURKE Dear Boys and Girls, As you go forth to meet your next life experi- ence, my sincerest wishes attend you. May the good lessons you have learned at Lafayette serve you well. May you have happy memories of your high school life and the pride that belongs to a job well done. A teacher,s deepest prayer is that she has helped, in even a small way, to make a boy or girl a better man or woman, and that something she has taught will give strength when it is needed most. That is my prayer now. I am grateful for the part I have had in your growing up. I hope you will long remember me as your friend and teacher. May God bless you all. Your Grade Adviser, VERA DUFORT