Petaluma High School - Trojans Yearbook (Petaluma, CA)

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THE ENTERPE I S E, ’15 lous manner lie will have strength tomorrow, or knowledge, or will, or character, that he has not today, and that he is making no effort to get. Spain was once the leader of all Europe in enterprise and daring, but today we see that leadership with the nations whose roots are in the colder and more active climes, where Nature seems not to have made tilings quite so easy for man as in sunny Spain. These northern peoples have had to fight harder in order to live and progress; this habit of making effort to overcome difficulties has carried them into the world’s leadership. Meanwhile, the happy, easy living people The Old High School Building—Built in 1872 of sunny Spain have made less effort to get the things they need, and have made “manana” the time for doing things. “Manana” is Span¬ ish for tomorrow; it is always tomorrow,— never today, for any dif¬ ficult task. When you recall that tomorrow is never actually here, you understand why the things are not done, why the desired growth is not achieved, why the new strength is never gained. Today is the only time there is; it is the only time that anything whatever can be done. Tomorrow will never be here; when the date that was once ‘ ‘ tomorrow gets here, it will be “today,” and the job will be harder than it was on the earlier today that has now become yesterday. Today is the only time in which we can do the things that ought to be done. If we hope that we shall be a better school in our fine new building where everything is to be just as it should be to make the best achieve- —13—

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A linril Jrom (!i)itr Jlrinripal 0 you realize that this is probably the last number of 4 ‘The Enterprise” that will be issued from our old home, the High School building on the hill? The next number will come out of the new home,—modern, up- to-date, equipped so as to give our boys and girls the newest and best things educationally. We naturally expect great things of the school then. We shall have better opportunities for doing our class room work as it should be done, for developing our school activities so as to get more good out of them, for building up and expressing practically a helpful school spirit, for making better citizens, and more useful ones, out of our people. Can we do it? Can we meet our increased obligations to our¬ selves and to our friendly public as we should? Shall we be able to do better work in our class rooms and laboratories and shops tha n we did when we had neither room nor light nor fresh air nor comfortable heating? Shall we get out a better “Enterprise?” Shall we have more successful athletics because of having all our students taking part for the physical benefit of it, rather than having a few ‘‘stars” doing it all for what they imagine is the “glory of the school?” Shall we do all these things,—recite, debate, write, act, work, play, any better? If not, then our good friends who voted us the new building may have made a mistake in being so generous. My answer to those questions is here; we shall not have any of these things better in the new building than in the old, notwithstanding the excellence of the modern equipment and the roomy grounds, unless we try hard to have them better before we get to the new building. Now is the time and here before us, in plain sight, is our duty. We have a fairly good school now, but we must have a better one in our new build¬ ing. We shall, however, never be better tomorrow than we are today unless we are striving to do better today. The weak man, the ineffective, flabby, useless chap, is the one who makes no effort today, but pictures a different tomorrow when things shall be, generally better and he shall be doing great things. Does he ever do them? You know he doesn’t; he only thinks he is going to do them, and that in some rairacu- —12—

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THE ENTERPRISE, ’15 ments possible, we shall have to be hard at work here in the old build¬ ing trying to make our school better, to do our work better to achieve our daily growth in physical, mental, moral, social stature. If we propose to wait until we get into our new building before trying to be stronger and better, we shall not be stronger and better in the new than in the old old. The building has no miraculous powers by which it can suddenly invest us with a stronger character, a clearer mind or a more useful body. We shall get these things only by going after them; we must work for them consistently and evenly, as men and women must always work for anything that is worth while. We cannot postpone the beginning, for, if we do, there will not be any consummation, any The New High School Building—in Course of Construction. Let us then be careful to make our faithful effort every day to be worthy of the new building that is to be the home of the Petaluma High School. Let us not be careless of the old lest the new be too good for us. Let us try to have the very finest school we ever heard of right here in the old, inadequate building; one in which self control and self direction are the rule; where good order and consideration for the rights of others are always in evidence; where the wise use of time and the same development of our powers are constantly going on. Let us try to better our records in our studies, our conduct in and out of school, our relations with all the men and women, the boys and girls, whom we daily meet. If we do these things well—and all of life is made —14—