Vandergrift High School - Spectator Yearbook (Vandergrift, PA)

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THE SPECTATOR 13 YOUR VIEW OF LIFE The Spectator Board has asked Mr. Omo to write an editorial, believing that it would serve as an inspiration to the students. He has kindly prepared the following article: F all the things that directly or indirectly affect your success in life, as well as your own personal happiness, nothing is of such importance as your view of Life. It gives coloring to your every act. It is the background from which other things must take their tint. It shapes your views and determines your actions unconsciously upon hundreds of the less important things of life. It makes you a longfaced pessimist, sour and grouchy, or it makes you an optimist, bright and cheery. One’s view of life is not always entirely his own choosing. It may be affected by health, family, friends or success, but one’s view of life can be consciously cultivated. Your view of life changes the complexion of the things about you. It puts spirit and energy into the most humdrum tasks. A necessary work is an honorable work. Do that which your ability and your environment makes necessary. Do it with cheer-fullness and a will. Envy mo man his success until you are willing to pay for it what he has paid. By paying the, price you can win success for yourself. But success is not always measured in dollars and cents. Teach yourself to view life and labor n its broader light, and you will have found the philosopher’s stone that dignifies labor well done, and draws pleasure from any honorable occupation. To deify your own work is the way to get pleasure and growth out of it. Forget as far as possible the daily wage you will get for your service. Let the carpenter see himself helping to build and improve the homes of mankind and he is ashamed of shoddy work. The student and professional man should look upon his work as a preparation and a service for his fellowman. The teamster with his load of coal, dirty and begrimed though he may be, should forget his toil and drudgery in the conviction that he is helping humanity to keep warm, while in turn he is earning an honest living and the comforts of home life for himself and family. Each individual should feel that in whatever field of work he is called to serve, he will do that work efficiently and well, putting all his energy and ability into it to make it a success. You get out of life what you put into it. Measure and it is measured back to you. Joy, sunshine, cheerfullness, obedience; these are reflections of yourself. The brighest colors, the most beautiful harmonies, are selfcreated products of one’s own mind. We see what we look for, we hear what we listen for, we get what we give. We must lose our life in our work if we are to find it again renewed and more fruitful in the lives of those with whom we work. See good in everybody and the goodness in them will rise up then to greet the goodness in us. Have beauty in your own life and you shall see beauty in the life about you—the rainbow, the storm cloud, the landscape, the sparrow’s song, the brooklet’s ripple, will all find an inspiring response in our own natures. Grouch and the world is grouchy, find fault and others will find fault. Distrust and others will not have confidence in you. The world and all around about us is one huge miiTor from which our own image is being reflected back to us. If we want to change the image begin to consciously build up in ourselves a bigger, brighter view of life and we shall begin to see bigger, brighter, better images reflected back to us. As a student and as a citizen, learn to look on life with a healthy optimism. Get a world view of humanity in its progress. Recognize yourself as a force infinitely small perhaps, but a necessary force in the triumphant march. Dollars and cents arc necessary to you to fill to perfection this place—but over and above all money, sweeter and more lasting is the good you can do, the pleasure you can inspire, the lives you can reach, the kindlier feelings you can cultivate in those with whom you must live and work. To see life in its largest views, to live life on a higher plane, to lift others to this larger life, is the opportunity that is before you. Make well of your time and opportunity. —C. H. OMO.

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12 THE SPECTATOR GREETINGS REETINGS, readers; and thank you for the support you have rendered in your purchase of this copy. We have striven to make this edition of “The Spectator” superior to those published previously and we believe we have accomplished our end. Therefore, it will be a matter of great interest to you to examine the “Spectator” carefully. Whatever success our paper may meet this year is due to the splendid willingness and eagerness with which the students respond to the requirements of the work; and to the prompt support of the business houses that have so kindly used our paper as a medium of advertising. We heartily recommend these firms to you, our patrons, and hope that you will favor them, as well as us, by your patronage. We take this opportunity to thank you for whatever aid and support you have given toward the success of “The Spectator” in its past publications —G. H. H., ’21. OUR AIMS O I have any aims in life? If so, are they of the kind that will uplift me and make me the better for having them? This question should be ever present in the minds of students. After all, what is an aim ? Are we moving along, day by day, with no particular object or purpose in mind—simply drifting? Are we coming to school day after day just as a pastime or because someone says that we should? If this is the only motive we have, out time is wasted; more than that— it is lost. What we need and must have, if we wish to become a success, is a certain goal, toward which we are continually striving. Just remember that “good enough” never makes real progress and often degenerates into shiftlessness. “What should be the character of our aims?” you may ask. Look at the life of Abraham Lincoln. Do you think that if his aims had not been of the highest standard, he could have risen to be the great man he was—the most beloved man in the heart of the American people. Everyone should have the ambition to do well whatever he does. Don’t take as your motto, “better than someone else” but “perfection” thus holding yourself responsible for a higher standard than is expected of you. But of what use are aims if we simply keep them before us but mak'e no effort to live up to them? What we need is the determination to carry out or unfold our thoughts and plans. Unless we have this, our lives may be considered as failures. The most successful people are those who have but one object in view and then pursue it with untix-ing persistence. It has been said that pei-haps the most valuable i-esult of education is the ability to make youi-self do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. In our daily lives when there is so much opportunity for helping our neighbor, thus enobling ourselves, let us have in mind always that “where there’s a will thei-e’s a way.” Then I am sure success will be awaiting us somewhere in the future. “Companionship with an ideal, Becomes the highest of delight: Makes dream and aspiration real And keeps life ever on the heights.” —EVELYN LOVE, ’21.

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14 THE SPECTATOR MANNERS TAUGHT AT HOME F at home vulgarity rules, no school can be trusted to make its children anything but vulgar. The American teachers deplore the American parents’ way of praising as “cute” and “clever” ugly tricks of conduct. Even so at home, masters and mistresses have been heard to lament that the wholesome influence of school and schoolfellows is often destroyed by the extravagance of home life. When we are so busy in overhauling our educational system and demanding more and more of the schools and teachers, it is worth while to remember that the home and the parents also have work to do. —COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT.