Medina High School - Medinian Yearbook (Medina, OH)

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THE MED N I A N SALUTATORY By Margery Con le Our high school days are now ended. We face the future with a feeling of uncertainty and dread as we realize the difficulties that will confront us. Most of us are concerned with the problem of employment. We know that it is very difficult to find a position and we ask ourselves, “How can we find work when there are over 10,000,000 people in the United States who are unemployed?” These people are frequently called failures because they have been unable to find employ ' ment. We are all striving for success. The question might be asked, “What is success?” Webster’s dictionary defines it as “the prosperous and favorable coni ' pletion or termination of any task you may undertake.” Its price is hard work, patience, and a few sacrifices. Success depends largely upon character; the qualities that make you what you are; and, what you have done makes you what you are. It is the only certain foundation upon which to build either a nation or an individual career. Knowledge is also important because it influences character. Particularly in a republic like ours where all the problems of public welfare must ultimately be re- ferred to the intelligence of the people, and where the control of the government is in the hands of the people, it is imperative that they shall be educated and trained for these responsibilities. Another quality we need for success is enthusiasm. It was enthusiasm that enabled Napoleon to complete a successful campaign in two weeks that would have taken another man a year to accomplish. Self-control is also essential. Those who learn this early in life have solved half the battles that will be met later. Many talented people are failures because of their inability to keep their tempers. Thus a single act sometimes determines a human destiny. Vision is important. A man cannot aspire if he looks down. With no fixed purpose in mind one unconciously follows the path of least resistance and ends in oblivion. Emerson expressed the need of vision when he said, “Hitch your wagon to a star.” Columbus possessed vision or he could not have discovered a new world. Climbing upwards demands tenacity of purpose. The successful men of today are men of one overmastering idea, one unwavering aim, men of single and in ' tense purpose. It was persistent effort that gave Bell the telephone, Whitney the cotton gin. Watt the steam engine, and Edison the phonograph. Another quality we need for success is definiteness of aim, for steadfast ap ' plication to a fixed goal is the law of a welbspent life. When the individual, striving for success, has discovered the art of applying all things to his aim, he has practically achieved victory. This perserverance and fixity of purpose is implied in the poem, “The Winner” — “The man who wins is the average man Not built on any particular plan. He’s one who never depends on luck — Just steady and earnest and full of pluck. So he works and waits, till one fine day There’s a bigger job with a better pay. And the men who shirked whenever they could Are bossed by the man whose work made good.” I igj Twenty

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a good “base camp” for himself, that is, selecting the proper associates and ideals. There is a broad circumference of experience in which we cannot choose. Even so though we cannot choose the threads of life, their color, or texture, or length, the pattern that we weave is still our own. The center of life is ours for mastery, there, our sovereign will prevails. Our environment is our “base camp.” We must make it cultural to warrant suitable conditions for the preparation for our flight. We have to build a spirit of tolerance, as a protection to it so that it can with- stand the surface winds — the petty jealousies and unkind criticisms. The bag of a stratosphere balloon could never carry the gondola without the heavy steel cylinders filled with hydrogen. Likewise, we can never make a worthy contribution to this world unless we have a good strong character to pull us always upward. Hydrogen is the essential element for the stratosphere ascent, just as character is indispensable in the altitude attainment in life. As the construction of the airship progresses, a huge box carrying the balloon bag is brought into camp. Within this bag is found the force which gives the ship the power to ascend. This bag determines the height and speed of the ascen- sion into the stratosphere. In like manner, our personalities determine the speed and height of our success while our energy and ambition keep us going just as the liquid oxygen generator keeps the men in the balloon alive. As we are about to leave high school we should feel that honor demands of us that we plan our flight well so that we may give the greatest possible excellence in everything we undertake. At the very outset of our career we should make a reso- lution to stamp it with our individuality, and to give everything we do the im- print of our character as a trademark of which we may be proud. Let us make it a sign of the highest and best that is in us. Our diplomas will merely identify us as a person from whom society has a right to expect more than it can ask from others. It isn’t a badge of superiority, until we demonstrate it. When the preparations are fully completed for the trip in the Stratosphere, it is up to the pilot of the balloon to make the flight a success, as it is up to us to make our own lives a success when our preparations are complete. As Ulysses says to his friends in Tennyson’s poem: . . . my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the paths of all the western stars, until I die.” “One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” T ineteen

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CLASS PRESIDENTS ' ADDRESS By Kenneth Foley As president of the Senior Class of 1935, of Medina High School, it is my privilege to extend to you a cordial welcome to these — our commencement exercises. We have labored hard to attain graduation, and many times we have looked ahead and wondered if that great day would ever come when we would receive our diplomas and step out of our school life forever. The day that we all longed for has finally arrived. Of course, we are pleased with our accomplishment but mingled with this pleasure there is a touch of sad ' ness, also. We have suddenly come to the realisation that our high school days are ended. During these four years our life has been more or less routine in character. Our activities in school, both in the classroom and in extracurricular work, have been rather definitely mapped out for us. We were not called upon to assume nor did we care to assume to any large degree, at least, the responsibility for such activities. Now, we are going out into a world that we know little about from the stand-point of actual experience. We will come in contact with that part of the world which did not filter into our school life. We will make new friends and enter new communities, but our school day associations with our classmates, teach- ers, and friends will be placed on the highest pedestal of our memory and when life seems dreary or cares heavy, we will take them down, relive them and be strengthened by their memory. It is hard to express just what Medina High means to those of us who are leaving her doors this year, and it is still more difficult to try to pick out from the many events of the past years just those which means the most to all of us. In the future when we glance over our memory books and smile reminiscently as we think of long forgotten games, and dances, class parties, and pleasant class room incidents may we possess that vision, that freedom of thought, which Medina High school has striven to give us. In completing our high school course, we have availed ourselves of opportuni- ties which are the right of every boy and girl. The Nation has come to demand that at least a majority of its people shall have a high school education, thus pro- viding the intelligent citizenship necessary to insure the future welfare of our country and its institutions. As we leave high school, each going to his own work, we realize that hence- forth each must build for himself. We hope in the years to come we may build into our lives the virtues that are truly worth-while and that whatever else we may receive, as a result of our efforts, we may possess integrity, initiative, a sense of responsibility, reverence, and such other qualities as will enable us to achieve life in an abundant measure. If we, as a result of our high school training, can prove ourselves to be real men and women; prove ourselves to be successful as human beings, then, indeed, shall we have shown ourselves worthy of the honors bestowed upon us tonight. T wenty-One