Memphis State University - DeSoto Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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Senior Class Poem When life is young, and liearts are free from care, i o live is joy, to long for is to gain. While dawns the Future with its promise fair, Like stars, the pleasures of the past must wane. To moidd with care the plastic minds of youth; in guide their thoughts, their hahits, and desires; To fill their hearts with love for right and truth, And light within ambition ' s noblest fires. Not what we were, but what we yet may be; Not what we couKl, but what we can and wil The woven past has cohjrs fair to see, But now the masterpiece our looms must iill. To let no day in iiUeness depart; To lose no chance to offer help and cheer; And daily ease some overburdened heart. Or light with hope some pathway dark and drear. I ' o weave a web whose tints will glow anil gleam With goKlen threads ot helpful w (jrds and deeds; A v eb whose pattern and whose central theme Are work and ser ' ice for our countr ' ' s needs. To find enjoyment and supreme delight In e ery inoment of the passing day, Forever mindful that the darkest night To fairest dawn at length must ield its swav. Such noble ends the surest means employ; J ut Hith can learn, and knowledge is the power That, daily gained, has made the past a joy. And w ith success will crown each coming hour. RowENA Young. Pai e 14

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(( Evolution of the Class of ' 16 GKS and a,2;es aj2;o, it seems, when the vvorUI was ()unii;; so yovinL!;. in fact, that the infant stars shone upon a wondrous passinsj; of embryonic ;:;reatness and all happenin js uere new and there was nothing (ihl under the sun, a great process was under way. Tliis process was the Evolution of the Senior Class of IQJb. In the first stage of growth we have five protoplasms of intel- lected capacity of the first year rank left to us. This first ;uon, was marked also by some twenty odil specimens which, varying too much from the original type, have htng since become extinct. We table and remember these cium ' ous products as 3A ' s. Character- istics of a lowdy creeping nature have marked these tiny, though im.portant atoms of hvmianity, e ' en through the ages past. Another turn in the wheel of time. Another sweep of new environment and another age of growth has been passeil through. Then, as 4A ' s, we find new habits, new propensities and new functions, emphasized in the makings of this group of imjiroved members. Mental as well as physical evolution was gaining head- way, and HI the Laborator of the Past, a special work of honor labels these as the famous missing link, and awards were made in the form of 4A certificates. Coming to us then, arose another cycle in the history of the class. Through a series of natural selectif)ns and still more radical variations, new elements combined to form the third stage of this evolutionary process. Social evolution became more marked and the great epoch of the trip on the Idlewild served only to prove how strong and of what extent this social influence was to charac- terize our history from then on. Hut now the sun has reached its zenith; civilization has won its own through the vast struggle with obstructions and adverse stumbling blocks in the form of tests, exams, term papers, etc. The pinnacle is reached ! The fame of the ages is ours! All our struggles for existence, all our past experiences combine to form the glory of the present. And now we stand accepting the crown, which marks us as finished protlucts of a marvelous process of educational e ' olution. We are Normal Seniors, and we wield the sceptre of a Normal School Diploma. We shout the challenge to the winds of all the future ages, defying them to prcjduce a greater protluct than we ourselves. Elizabeth Wormele ' S ' , ' 16, IJisforhui. Patic 5