Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

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THOSE WERE THE DAYS . . 6

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VADIS However, most of os decided that if we were to go someplace, marks would get us there. So we studied, (not all the time or as much as we should have) hut at least we passed fifteen points. Others of us joined as many extracurricular activities as we could. Sometimes these clubs provided us with valuable experi- ences; other times they hindered us because we became too in- volved and neglected our schoolwork. All in all. we usually man- aged to achieve passing grades. Why we wanted passing grades, many of us didn’t know! Annually, teachers asked us to fill out cards with “Future Plans’’. Many of us merely made the information up to satisfy the “information getters. Yet the question made us think. “What am I going to do when I leave Somerville High; where am I going — “Quo Vadis”? Although SHS tried to help us answer, many of us did not realize it. High School tried to give us the subjects that would help us most in what we finally decided to do. Most of the time, students felt that the subjects we were forced to take were not relevant to what we were going to do when we were graduated. For instance, subjects such as trigono- metry, chemistry and Knglish were considered irrelevant! Yet even if we were never to use these subjects, at least we would have some background knowledge in case we did need it. When? Who knew? Some of us still didn’t know where we were going in the senior year! Besides academic problems, high school presented us with a whole new set of complex problems. We had to decide which group of friends to associate with, what was the moral and ethi- cal thing to do and what was not. At times the pressures seemed almost unbearable. But one thing remained — if we could cope with these problems and pressures then we were leaving school with more than just a diploma of academic achievement. We were leaving school with some ideas as to what we were going to do and what we were not going to do. Long anticipated, June of 1971 and graduation arrived. Inde- pendence! However, although we were happy about the prospect of finishing high school, we realized that now school could no longer protect us from society and adult responsibilities. Boys would have to worry about being accepted into college and being non-accepted by the draft. Girls would have to worry about whether they could get a job or if they would be accepted into college. Yet, now that graduation is finally here, all of us will have to find someplace to go when wre wake up in the morning. High school no longer will be there. If we want to achieve something we will have to do it ourselves. Finally, we realize whether those thirteen (or more) years of school — filled with happiness and sorrow, achievements and failures, triumphs and defeats — were wasted or not. Class of 1971, Quo Vadis? Catherine Agostino tit cihtor

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WE THOUGHT THEY’D NEVER END