Tarboro High School - Tar Bo Rah Yearbook (Tarboro, NC)

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W...-....--nf..-. . me.. -u . .......-. 1-em-,......-N-9 gi-.-af, unch-Q-v .,.- -- - r ,.'mwf -g-gm - , . .. .w.-......u.-A-, Las. .f-. .....--.- Q. Q.-,-,f..........,-.,a.1s.,xeelLL1,. ,. ..r-,q.,.,i ,,K,:,m,, AUP s. .. . .......,--.-M, . g .. .1.s....-..e..........-......1...-...sA..... .-Q,-m a-Q1.Q1w 1... , , Halehirtnrg--runtinurh When a company of people set out to climb a mountain, if it is very high, the chances are that after all have traveled together for a while some will begin to lag behind and others will begin to drop out, an dthe higher the mountain the fewer there are who continue to climb, the highest peaks are reached only by recourse to unusual methods. Only the exceptional ones reach the top. This illustrates the human effort to climb the mountains of oppor- tunity in the everyday lives that we live. Some lack the ability to get far in life, and possibly the zeal and spirit to climb far. Others get farther and a few reach the pinnacles of high achievement. None can climb far without vision and the strength born of determination to struggle through strife to victory. One cannot let the world war on and shirk the fight and still fill the place which the young people of today are expected to fill. Some bewail their fate and claim it is useless to try because fate is ever un- kind. Others seemingly compel fate by their determination as to their own attainments. Only the courageous will attempt the discomforts and dangers of Mt. Everest. Only the scholar who is brave can be depended upon to carry the light of the world to the highest peaks of life and there stand steadfast and straight like the lighthouse rock from which light shines forth to guide mariners through shoals and dangers. So it is the scholar's place to be the steadfast lighthouse from which light shall pour forth upon a still largely lmenlightened world. This is the commencement season, the beginning of a new life for us, though perhaps our friends will not notice the difference. Never again will everything be as it was before. The days of our working together for a single purpose have come to an end, even though we may have common interests to some extenthereafter. The class ties may not be broken, but the class must be broken up into its several units. VVe must say farewell to the pleasures of the commencement season, farewell to our instructors, farewell to each other as a group together for a single goal. We no longer have our eyes upon the same objective. Inclination, ability, or circumstances shall turn us in many direc- tions, but whatever the future may hold for you, it is my earnest wish, as we say farewell, that you may lind in the hills of life toward which you are facing the things most worth possessing, and also that you may stand steadfast and straight holding the torch that sheds light upon a world still largely in darkness. So, farewell, classmates and friends. It is with sadness that we part after eleven years spent together in striving for this goal-but years full cf joy and happiness, years that will never be forgotten by any of us. Time must go on, but in the years to come memories of this connnencement will come back to all of us and we will say in the words of the poet: Backward, turn backward, oh, time in thy flight, And let us be classmates, just for tonight. -Laura Whitlark, Valedictorian.

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Halrhirtnrg The scholar, where stands he? Ill for the state If weakening in the strife, and short of sight, He let the world wag on and shirk the fight. Well for us all if, brave, compelling Fate, A lighthouse rock, steadfast he stands and straight. Hold fast the faith, make manifest the light. THESE lines express our feelings on this occasion when we must bid you, our classmates and friends, farevsell. ' We have long been looking forward to this time. We have been striving to gain knowledge and meet the requirements imposed upon us before we could graduate. Sometimes it seemed like a waste of energy to conform to the fixed standards, but those who were wiser than we deemed it best that we should meet the specified requirements, and we shaU, no doubt, profit by them in the years to come. For many months our little fleet has been riding in harbor, today the anchors are weighed and slowly we drift down the tide toward unknown seas. A few hours more and these clustering sails will be scattered and fading specks each in its own horizon, straining or drifting toward its goal. I would not in these few lines bring in the eternal note of sadness. Rather I would speak of the better, brighter part. We cannot but see as we leave these walls that we go out to a broader, fuller life. Above all, it is the real life for which this was only the preparation. The great object of the instruction we have received here has been to teach us the value of all education. Leave your finest floners to propagate themselves and they will return to the wild weeds from whence they have been evolved. Neglect our high-bred animals and they will soon lose their fine qualities and revert to their primi- tive roughness and wild nature. So it is with human education. Our efforts for the advancement of the race are like those of a swimmer who is struggling against a mighty current. To stop, to rest, to be careless, is to lose all we have gained. Even to hold our own we must keep going on. The life-giving power of education is intended to lit us, not for cultivated leisure, but for earnest work. A liberal culture binds men together by giving each one interests beyond himself. The talents we possess are for the service of allg our activity and progress go into the general social conditionsg our faults and failures subtract from the public good. A vigorous purpose makes much out of little, breathes power into weakness, disarms difficulties, and snatches victory from defeat. Yes, we are going into a world that has made a place for the scholar and looks to the educated young man and woman to lead the way. Opportunities are before us. Opportunities that will test usg prove whether it has been worth the expense of the public, the sacrifice of our parents and the efforts of our instructors to bring our minds to their present state of partial efficiency. We have long had our eyes on the goal of graduation which appeared to us not so long ago as a mountain peak on the distance, but now that we have reached our goal we find that it is not a mountain peak at all, and that we are still only in the foothills of life. However, our vision has broadened and as we continue in life we shall find still more hills to climb and our highest altitude at length will be determined by our capability or perhaps by our inclination.

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