St Thomas Military Academy - Kaydet Yearbook (Mendota Heights, MN)

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A FAREWELL TO ST. TITOMAS The one admirable characteristic of youth is ambition. That beautiful trait which arouses our interest and hope in the unknown future. The very uncertainty of the future kindles in the soul of youth the undying flame of ambition. I he past is closed, the present we try to enjoy to the utmost, but the unopened future draws us on with the attracting force of that irresistible magnet; adventure. And as we draw near the end of our high school life it seems we are about to pass a milestone, if you will, which marks the end of the most enjoyable period of our life. The future beckons us on. and we look ahead with yearning eyes at the hazy, indistinct peak of success. Of this path of life we must take to reach the pinnacle of success, we know just two things. The way will be jutted with rocks of depres- sion and failure; but it will also be lined with sparkling gems of promise and suc- cess. This path is a long and hard one, but we do not stop to realize this. e can onlv see the gleaming pebbles of fortune as we begin our long climb up that rocky, steep and uncertain mountain of success and fame. It is not until we have climbed to the very summit of that cliff, or found that we cannot, bv our own lack of ambition, reach that height, that we look back along the way we have come. It is then, in the ever fading twilight of life, that we realize the value of our high school days at St. I homas. It is then that we wish to relive in memory the happy hours spent on her shaded campus, to renew the friendships of those who have gone to other latitudes to seek their fortune. It we could only go back and be given another chance to take a better advantage id the opportunities our Alma Mater had given us. and take a little more patience and care in selecting our lifelong friends. We hope our succeeding undergraduates shall be aware of this and tr to realize the value of their high school days, the brightest days of a boy’s life. So we now must bid St. Thomas a sincere and fond farewell, thanking our parents and professors for their untiring efforts and great sacrifices in giving us the opportunities of acquiring a wonderful education. Though we all may some- times be inclined to forget the opportunities and happy times we spent here, there will forever remain in our memory fond mementoes of our high school days and an undying love lor our own Alma Mater. 17 TED IIIDDING III.

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 E K A THE Y r SENIOR E SABRE As a final gesture, at the graduation of the seniors, it is traditional lor the senior class to pre- sent to the Juniors, the Senior Sabre—the symbol of the senior class leadership. The Junior class- men who are to be the next year’s graduates, in accepting the Senior Sabre, assume their role as the upper class of the school, and it is the trans- ferring of this sabre completes the transition. Begun in 1952, the conferring of the senior sabre has become an accepted ceremony in the commencement exercises of St. Thomas, and we, the seniors, extend with this year’s sabre, the hope that the Juniors will carry on the ideals of the corps in rising to new heights of leadership and accomplishment. 18]