Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

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QUO VADIS

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 Where are you going?” Since the beginning of our lives this is the question constantly asked of us. Sometimes it is phrased differently: “What will you be? , “Do you have any future plans?”, Why are you doing that?”. Attempting to answer this question hundreds of problems confront us. For some, the ques- tions are easily answered. These are the people who go nowhere because they want to go nowhere. The others think and wonder about their destination in life, and to them the question “Quo Vadis seems almost unanswerable. quo To most of us during the first six years of our lives “Quo Vad- is was meaningless because we were dependent upon our parents for the answer. They told lis what to do. what not to do. where to go. where not to go. The first time the question began to have meaning was the day our parents told us, You’re going to school!” “School? What’s that!” We soon found out. No longer did we have a hand to hold: no familiar face was near for secu- rity. We were left at the door of the elementary school and for the first time the outside world began U have a powerful influence. Some of us decided then what the future would be; others never really decided. Kit her way the first years of our school life were very important. They shajred our lives and gave us clues to where we were going — but also presented us with a whole new set of decisions to make. First decision was to make up our mind that we would learn to like school. Eventually we stopped crying when our mot hers left us at the front door. Every year, then on with grade promotions, we were faced with more insistence, What are von going to he when you grow up?” (in other words, Where are you going?”). We usually answered with the obvious — teacher, nurse, fireman, or with the extreme and say, A famous archaeologist”, or ex- plore] or the glamorous life, a movie star”. At any account, it answered the question for .the time. When we reached junior high, we began to see the world differently. The problems became more intricate. Society with all its problems began to exert its influence. Now more decisions faced us. Skipping classes or not skipping classes? Once we tried it and got away with it. Skipping classes became either a habit or a mere pleasure. When questioned “Quo Vadis' those of us who repeatedly skipped classes answered No where!” To some drugs and the temptation for the easy way” was the answer to “Quo Vadis?