Medina High School - Medinian Yearbook (Medina, OH)

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THE MEDINI AN Valedictory By Ellen Nichols Friends and Classmates: We cannot but have some few regrets as we gather here this evening to bid farewell to our high school days. A part of our lives is forever gone with the sun that set today. Wish as we may, we cannot retrace the steps we have now taken. As Omar said in Persia many years ago: The moving finger writes, and having writ Moves on; nor all our piety nor wit Shall lure it bac to cancel half a line, Tfor all our tears blot out a word of it. But after all, this is not a time for vain regrets for the things we have left undone. It is rather a time to take stock of the things we have accomplished during our four years here. It is a time to cast up our accounts and to note the balance we have left. Of course, it is to be hoped, we have gained some little knowledge of books. Books contain a vast treasure of wisdom because ' in them are collected the great thoughts of great men down through the ages. They give us, at once, in a compact form, the benefit of the united experience of hundreds of men through hundreds of years. The study of their successes and failures and of the knowledge they acquired may serve to set our starting-point a little farther along the road. Perhaps even more important than book-knowledge, although it is not listed in the school curriculum, is the experience we have accumulated for ourselves. Knowl- edge handed down and learned by rote is all very well, but it will never be so real, so vital to us as that, that we slowly sift out of the bumps and knocks life gives us. Education — a happy combination of these two — is important to a full and com- plete life. It gives us a wider window on life and teaches us tolerance — an apprecia- tion of the other fellow and his work although they both may be as far as the poles from us and the ideal for which we are striving. It will be one small step towards progress when men learn to really know their fellowmen and the good that is inevitably in them. Our contacts during high school days will always remain one of the most precious memories among our souvenirs. We owe a debt of gratitude that will never be paid to our teachers who have borne with us thus long; and who, along with lessons in the intricacies of English, Latin and Math, have taught us invaluable lessons in the art of living. If they have been often discouraged by our seeming insensibility to good counsel, may they find consolation in remembering that practice is always more potent than preaching. Twenty

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It was following the World War that the need for security between nations became evident if peace was to reign. The horrors of the war determined in the minds of the people that peace should be their aim. Since the war, the League of Nations has been organized; the Locarno Treaties have been, signed and several disarmament conferences have been called. Thus the idea of security has become one of the stepping stones to international peace. While I have touched upon the three forward movements that at present tend toward the establishment of international peace, yet, the thinking individual must recognize that they in their broadest interpretation, can be designated as nothing more than tendencies toward peace. As yet, permanent peace is an ideal of the remote future toward which both individuals and nations may, through the coming generations, strive; and which they may vision as an ideal to be more or less per- fectly realized in the long distant future. But, permanent peace as an institution among, not only individuals, but nations as well, must be built upon elements of character which must be instilled into the heart and mind of practically every indi- vidual of every nation before it can be realized. Thus, if the United States and other nations desire to bring about a condition of permanent peace and be leaders in this sort of a movement, it must build into the lives of its people a spirit of tolerance, good-will and unselfishness that will enable them to meet not only as individuals, but as nations in a friendly, amicable and open minded manner without petty hatreds and with a recognition on their part that the spirit of brotherliness and good-will is more essential to prosperity and happiness than anger, hatred, bigotry and selfishness. The realization of such a program is truly ideal- istic, but with the accomplishment of such material wonders as we have recently seen come to pass where the people of this continent may talk to each other and may even visit with each other in a few hours time, who knows but that this breaking down of distance barriers may be a long step forward in the occomplishment of international peace. Thus we enter world affairs in one of the most progressive ages of History. We must, therefore, consider our future carefully. May we fully appreciate the possibilities which are laid before us and may we accept the challenge to maintain the high standards set by our forefathers in national and international affairs. Nineteen

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THE MEDINIAN The friendships that we have formed here will not be soon forgotten nor will their influence soon vanish from our lives. It has been said that a man may be known by the company he keeps — merely another way of saying to what an extent our lives are molded by those with whom we are intimate. It is probable that never again will we assemble with our roll complete, but that need bring no great regret. The best part of a friendship in after years may not be to meet that friend again — for changes are inevitable and bring subtle disappointment — but to live over again in thought the days that we spent together in old M. H. S. As we pass out of these portals tonight the world lies before us. A band of modern Don Quixotes, we are ready to set out to conquer the earth. For some of us there may be more years of preparation; others of us go directly into life. But for none of us have our days of learning ended, for as we live we will learn. And for all of us the plunge will come sooner or later. There are many fields that lie open. Now, no one is limited in the choice of what he will do. We will find, too, as we work, that it is only at the foot of the ladder that the throng is; it is never crowded at the top. Science, with its mysteries of mechanics and power that have made possible the automobile and the airplane and will make possible in the future greater things, beckons to the alert and open-minded. The professions, medicine, dentistry, law, call for boys and girls — the raw materials of men and women — who are eager to make men a healthier and hap- pier race. Teaching, with its chance at young minds in the plastic stage, holds an oppor- tunity for those who would try their hand at reforming what is bad by means of cultivating only the good, at a time when impressions are lasting. There is a need, too, for honest men in business and commerce. Homes call for educated women who are trained to do their job wisely and well. After we have learned to govern ourselves a wider field will open for us in helping our fellowmen. In these times of world agitation and unrest there is a great need for honest men in politics. Let us hope, too, that from our ranks may be recruited an artist or musician, for the world has want of the beautiful on its way. But whatever the goal we may finally reach, however different from that we now plan, may we always remember that it is not so much the end that we reach as it is the spirit with which we pursue that end, that counts. “Not failure but low aim is crime.” 1 1 “Life is a mirror of png and slave, It is just what we are and do, i : So then, give to the world the best you have And the best will come bac to you.” Twenty-One